Crew of the Axe: One Truth!
by DJ Paynter
Summary: A team of Detectives, new in town realize they're in for a heck of a career with the strange band of pirates, criminals and other folk in this town, can the team solve thier cases and help bring justice back to this town?
1. Chapter 1

**That's right folks! Another DJ-made fic! This must mean I'm a good writer since I've survived my last few!**

**DJP: Nope, just persistant…**

**DJP: Shut it! Anyway, once again, the characters in this fic are either from kilnorc's original Crew of the Axe story or from cannon One Piece. I do not own One Piece or Case Closed (you'll find some hints of that in there ) Enjoy the fic!**

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**Case One: The Katt burglar caper!**

Ten youths stood outside a decent sized mansion, looking up at in awe. "WOW! This place is huge!" A young woman with fox ears exclaimed.** (Dusty Wenata, Stealth Expert)**

"We actually get to stay here?" A blonde woman gave a low whistle while she looked the mansion over. **(Kirsty Chambers, Medical Expert)**

"How'd you say we got this place again Axe?" A blonde man with an 'pissed at the world' look on his face patted a smaller brunette boy standing next to him. **(Devon, Assistant Coordinator)** The boy he was patting stayed silent and simply nodded to another man, emphasizing the question being posed. **(Austin, Junior Investigator)**

"Beats me, we needed a headquarters and this mysterious card appears in the mail." A black haired man with a rather large stone axe on his back looked down a t a small white business card. (**Axe, Head Coordinator)** He looked at the brightly embroidered letters and numbers on the card.

Every city needs heroes, give the criminals of this town something to fear and show them justice is not dead. Use these facilities well and make this city how I remember it.

1412 Titan Way, Tomahawk Manner

"What about that, dude?" An orange-haired man pointed to the bottom of the card Axe was holding. **(Azu Baba, Intoxication Expert)** "Is that a signature?"

Axe looked on the bottom rim of the card to what looked more like a quote than a name.

-There can always only be ONE TRUTH

"Nope, wonder what it means though, One Truth…" Axe mumbled to himself.

"Who cares? The point is we have a headquarters now. We're detectives, it's not our job to figure out mysterious circumstances." A brown-haired man carrying a sword smirked from in front of Axe, looking at the mansion still rather than the card. **(DJ MacLeod, Chief Investigator)**

"Baka, do you even know the meaning of the word detective?" A dark-haired woman glared at DJ. **(Niri Zolaro, Weapons Expert/Treasurer)"**Honk!" A small penguin at Niri's side also glared angrily at the boy, crossing his flippers. **(Pingu, Zoology Expert)**

"Of course I do Niri-chan, we… detect things… right?" DJ blinked stupidly.

"Let it go Niri, its no use having a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent." A tall, red-haired woman sighed and pushed the brim of her hat down as she walked forward into the mansion doors. (**Chizuru, Archival Expert)**

"I have arms! Right here, see?" DJ waved his hands in front of Chizuru's face.

A large, red, lobster-like man sighed as he stepped forward, following Chizuru and DJ. "Guess we can't 'detect' anything on an empty stomach, I'm going to go check out the kitchen." He walked off into the hall of the mansion. **(Herman, Culinary Expert/Intoxication Assistant)**

Axe looked around and whistled, the place seemed even bigger on the inside, while it wasn't huge, it was easily larger than a normal house. "Nice place… just can't help wondering how and why we got it and what do we do now…"

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A few days later, after the youths had unpacked and sent out their advertisements for the new "Axe-Head Detective Agency", they had finished everything they had needed to do, there was nothing left but to wait for a case to roll in.

"Niri?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm bored!"

"Then why are you bugging me!?" The weapons expert shouted to Dusty, both of whom were sitting on separate couches in the main living room of Tomahawk manner.

"Cuz…" The stealth expert whined. "It's been three days since we moved in here and still no sign of any work, who knew being a detective was so boring?" She kicked her feet as she lay facing upwards on the couch, staring at the ceiling.

"Go find something to do, you don't see Chizzy or Kirsty complaining." Niri resigned to polishing her guns to fight boredom while Pingu sorted ammunition.

"Kirsty's got her doctor books and who knows what Chizuru does up there all the time." The fox-girl sighed as she slowly slid off the couch and onto the floor. "Soooo booooored…"

"Go make DJ do some ridiculous stunt then, that's always funny." Niri sighed, putting down her guns and looking irritated.

"I did that yesterday, besides, I don't know where DJ-kun is, you're the only one I could find." She whimpered.

"Lucky me…" The dark-haired woman mumbled to herself.

"WHOOOOOOOOOOOOT!" A red and black blur came through the halls, kitchen and into the living room where Dusty and Niri were. DJ grinned broadly, holding up a detailed piece of paper. "Kirsty-chan, Chizzy-chan!" he called the girls down sweetly. "YO BASTARDS!" He roared for the men in a much more gruff tone. "WE HAVE A CASE!"

The others rushed down to the living room quickly from their various locations in the house. "What? Gimme that." Axe snatched the paper from the investigator and read aloud. "_The Mikan Bank requests the services of the Axe-Head Detective Agency immediately to investigate the mysterious robberies of its vaults." _The coordinator finished reading the short note. "Well… humbled beginnings I guess." He sighed. "Where the hell is Mikan bank?"

"Oh! Oh! I know! I know!" DJ raised his hand, jumping excitedly. "That's the bank Nami-san owns!"

"Nami-san?" Devon raised an eyebrow.

"The vision of beauty whom is second only to Dusty-chan!" DJ shouted, flailing his arms with an expression of love on his face. "Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!" He took off in a blur before anyone else could say a word.

-----------------------------------------

The group of ten and a penguin arrived shortly after at Mikan Bank, one of the most trusted banks in all of Fushigi city. It was a short walk since Tomahawk manner was on the outskirts of the city. "Wow… this place is nice, must not be having too much money troubles." Kirsty looked around the outside of the bank before all of the detectives went inside.

A blonde-haired man with his hair covering his left eye and a smoking cigarette in his mouth, greeted the group as they walked in. "Oh Mellorine! Welcome lovely ladies!" He smiled warmly. "And bastards who happen to be with the lovely ladies." He muttered as an afterthought.

"Sanji-kun!" an angry-looking orange-haired woman stepped out of the bank offices, glaring at the bank assistant, apparently named Sanji. "How many times have I told you not to smoke in the bank!?" She slapped the cigarette out of his mouth and stepped on it as it hit the ground.

"Sorry Nami-san…" Sanji looked down like a disciplined puppy.

"Nami-san!" DJ leapt from his crowd of friends joyfully and ran over to the bank owner. "We came to help you! Someone's been robbing your bank?"

The orange-haired beauty smirked softly and gestured to the vaults. "Follow me, I'll show you." The group of detectives, the bank owner and the assistant all walked over to the large iron vaults that held all of the bank's money. "These vaults have the top of the line tripwire technology, seastone lining, and auto-lock mechanisms. Your job as detectives is to find not only who, but how they broke into the vaults so that we can improve our security." Nami nodded as she spoke, activating the security system for the vaults.

"Wow… top-notch stuff here." Axe looked around at the many mechanisms of lasers, tripwires and locks that separated any would-be thief from its treasure.

"And you hired us because you heard about how good we are?" Dusty grinned broadly.

"No, we hadn't heard anything about you guys, we hired you because you're cheap. A new group in town can't afford to charge that much." Nami said simply.

"Nami-san doesn't like to spend a lot of money." Sanji chuckled nervously. "She hates to spend any actually."

"Hmmm… that sounds familiar for some reason…" Azu rubbed his chin as he looked to Niri, who simply glared daggers back at him.

"Yes, but the one crime I can never forgive is someone stealing MY money!" Nami clenched her fists. "Please help find who's responsible." She turned back to the detectives, voice turning sweet rather quickly.

"Hai Nami-san!" DJ grinned broadly. "I'll put everyone right on it!" He squealed.

"Since when is he leader?" Herman whispered to Chizuru, who chuckled softly.

"Alright, we'll figure it out, as long as we get paid." Niri grinned wryly.

"First thing's first, anything you can tell us about who would want to rob this place? Any personal vendettas or clues you found on the scene?" Chizuru asked, looking around the vaults carefully.

"We did find this." Sanji held up a card and a plastic bag. The card said '_Snatched by the Katt Burglar' _with a picture of a paw print on it and the bag contained what appeared to be cat hair.

"Hmmm, most likely a Zoan Devil Fruit user, a neko neko no mi model if I had my guess…" Devon rubbed his chin thoughtfully while looking at the bag and card.

"Alright, Chizuru, first you run up the records of every person known to have a neko neko no mi model Devil Fruit. That should give us a list of suspects to go on. Next, we'll run a test on the strength of the vault security system to see how powerful the person who broke in here would have to be." Axe nodded as he sent out orders.

-----------------

"Alright Dusty, try it again." Devon sighed as he watched the fox girl try to outmaneuver the tripwire traps of the vault, only to fail and be captured in a net that appeared from the ground.

"Damnit! Whoever did this must be a king of stealth and fast as hell…" Dusty complained as she was helped out of the net.

"Hmmm… well then let's try speed over maneuverability then." Axe smirked. "Soru!" He sped through the vaults, only to be caught up by another trap, which raised a locked wall in front of the detective. "Damn, and with these seastone lined vaults, no one would be able to use Devil Fruit abilities to get in. If it's not Devil Fruits, Rokushiki, or stealth, then what is it?" Axe pounded his hands on the wall.

"No clue, this is a real stumper, we'll just have to wait for Chizzy to get back with those records." Herman sighed. "In the meantime, why not have some lunch? Sanji owns the Mellorine restaurant next door." He pointed through the wall to the building direction.

"Lunch!? YAY!" Dusty ran off to the building next door, trying to see if she could get a free meal out of Sanji.

"He owns the next door restaurant and is an assistant here?" Kirsty blinked. "That's pretty suspicious, maybe we should add him to our suspect list…" she spoke softly.

"Speaking of whipped guys, where's Speedy?" Devon looked around, seeing that DJ was nowhere in sight.

"He left a while ago, said he was going to get the cat hair from the scene checked out. There wasn't enough to tell what kind of cat it was just by looking at it, so he'd have to find someone incredibly good with identifying those things in order to tell anything." Niri sighed.

As the rest of the group began to head over to the Mellorine diner next door, Chizuru rushed through the door, carrying three pieces of paper. She handed all three reports to Axe. "These are all the neko neko no mi model users I could in the city. I suggest we tail them and see what we can find." The record keeper nodded softly.

Axe looked over the three pieces of paper, seeing two females and one male depicted on them. _I bet you're still keeping a low profile Aniki, even so I doubt it would be you, these three people are our best bet. _"Alright folks, get Dusty to tell Sanji to have our lunch to go, we have some suspects to stake out…"

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"Suspect one… Katt the pole fighter. She ate the neko neko no mi, Model: Tiger." Niri whispered from her place in the bushes. Her, Pingu and Dusty had been assigned to stake out the first suspect in the park where she usually came to do… cat things.

The weapons expert watched as a tiger-looking female walked out from behind "her tree" "I wouldn't put it past a shady character like her to steal from Mikan bank." Niri muttered. "Now remember Dusty… the most important thing is to stay down and stay… Dusty?" The dark-haired woman looked to her side to see the fox girl was no longer with her.

"You did it!" Came a shout from where Niri saw Katt earlier, the sharpshooter looked in horror as the kitsune girl stood right in front of the tiger woman, pointing at her in plain sight. "That's our stealth expert…" Niri sweatdropped, "Subtle as a flying mallet…"

"Excuse me?" Katt glared at Dusty, her eyebrow twitching at the accusation. "Did what, you snippy little fox?"

"You rubber the Mikan bank! The robber's card said the KATT burglar, your name's Katt, therefore you did it!" Dusty shouted. "Niri, where the hell'd you go!? I got the suspect!" The fox girl shouted over to the bushes where Niri was.

Niri and Pingu nearly facefaulted as they heard this. "Not only does she expose herself, she gets us caught too…" The weapons expert sighed as she stepped out of the bushes. "Please ma'am, we just want you to come with us so we can see what you know about the Mikan bank robbery."

"Nya, why should I?" Katt stuck her tongue out at the new arrival.

"Because if you do…"

BONK!

"What the hell Dusty!?"

"She was resisting arrest, you saw it." The fox girl grabbed Katt by the scruff of the neck after knocking her unconscious with one of her scythe-like weapons. "Come on, let's bring her back to the manner." Dusty grabbed Katt's tail and hefted it over her shoulder, beginning to drag her all the way back to Tomahawk manner.

"I swear, I'll never understand how that thing you call a mind works Kit…" Niri sighed as she and Pingu begrudgingly followed her.

-----------------------

"Sus-hic-pect two… Rob -hic- Lucci…" Azu muttered to himself as he and Kirsty tailed a dark-haired man with a very somber look on his face in suspenders, through the main streets of the city. Azu dodged between trash cans, ducked behind street signs and anything to avoid being seen following the man. Kirsty however, took a more casual approach and simply walked quite a ways behind him.

"This guy has the neko neko no mi, Model: Leopard. His name literally means 'to steal the light' I wonder what else he's stealing…" Kirsty nodded, remembering what she read in the file. "Suspect has just exited the pet store, he bought bird food." She whispered to herself, making a mental note. "He is now heading north on fourth street…"

CHIRPCHIRPCHIRP!

Both Azu and Kirsty nearly jumped out of their skin at the loud chirping sound that pierced the air. People around them stopped and looked for a second before continuing on their way. Lucci however, seemed unaffected. Azu looked to his partner from his place behind a mailbox, mouthing that they should keep following him.

"I know you people are back there, what do you want from me?" Came a voice from behind the two that gave them another near-heart attack. As the two turned around, they saw a white bird in a green coat, wearing a black tie. "A –hic- bird?" Azu questioned as the bird flew past them and onto Lucci's shoulder.

"Ventriloquism?" Kirsty observed while looking from the bird to Lucci. "What do you want from me?" The bird repeated.

"Heh, so it's true, you really that good…" A voice called down softly before Axe jumped down from a small building. "I was tracking you from those rooftops for blocks, my own teammates didn't even know I was there and you caught me." The coordinator smirked.

"I'll ask one more time, what do you want from me?" The bird said again, moving his wings like hands while Lucci kept his cold-looking eyes on Axe.

"There was a robbery at Mikan bank, we just want you to come to our house with us and answer some questions." Axe responded. "I'm sure you've done nothing wrong so you have nothing to fear." He smirked.

The bird made a sighing sound. "Fine, I'll go, this better not be a waste of my time though, I have a job to do, and I do so love my work." The bird and Lucci began following Axe, who had a wry smirk on his face.

"Don't we all Rob, don't we all…"

----------------------------

"Hmmm… so you think I robbed the Mikan bank? Why would I do something like that?" A girl with black cat ears on top of her head swung her legs back and forth while sitting in a chair at the local ice cream shop.

"We're not sure, you don't look like the kind of person who would rob a bank, of course you don't look like the kind of person who would have the nickname Oni of the Sea either, Aro." Devon gave a cold look to the innocent-looking girl as he, Austing and Herman sat in chairs in front of her.

"Can we please do this elsewhere? This cold is creeping me out…" Herman's teeth chattered as he rubbed up and down his forearms. "I'm not built for this kind of place, ice cream is meant to be cold and I'm meant to be warm."

"You're never happy with the weather, are you?" Devon raised an eyebrow to the culinary expert. "It's always too hot or too cold." He sighed. "Would you like to come continue the investigation at our mansion, Aro?" Devon stuck out an offering hand, leaning against the back of his chair.

"Sure…" Aro nodded, still licking on the Popsicle she had come in here to get. "Not sure what you're expecting to find though. I've done nothing wrong." She bounced up out of her seat and prepared to follow the boys.

Austin sighed and gave the cat-girl a look.

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DJ tapped his foot impatiently as he waited. "Are the results ready yet, Kagura-sama?" He asked as he looked over various files he asked Chizuru to dig up on everyone involved in the case.

"Almost DJ, these things take time…" The dark-skinned, blonde-haired woman standing nearby looked at the bag of hair carefully with several of her scientific instruments.

"I need to know which Devil Fruit that hair came from to confirm my suspicions." The speedy swordsman muttered. "And everyone knows you're the best Devil Fruit scientist out there."

"Flattery won't make this process go any faster DJ-kun…" Kagura muttered as she backed up and looked at the hair, righting something down. "Almost… there! It's done!" She handed DJ the piece of paper with her findings on it.

The Investigator's eyes went wide as he saw what was on the paper. "Oh my God…" He headed for the door. "Thanks Kagura-sama, gotta run!"

"You're…" She blinked as he was out the door before she could finish. "… Welcome…"

The brunette swordsman sped down the darkening streets as the sun went down, giving everything an orange glow before night fell and everything became black.

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Axe grinned as he paced the front of the parlor room of Tomahawk manner. He looked throughout the room, Nami, Sanji, the three suspects, and all of his agency minus DJ were gathered there. "Ladies, Gentlemen and everything in between. I have gathered you all here in the accusing parlor so that you may watch as I unravel this mystery step by step!" The captain gave a broad smirk as he looked around the room to the confused faces of everyone involved. He pulled out a piece of paper with his deduction on it and unfolded it. "You see, the robber can only be one person, and that person is…!"

SLAM!

The door flew off its hinges and hit Axe in the face, because of the stone captain's fortitude it only served as a small annoyance. A gust of wind blew past everyone as DJ appeared in the doorway. "Wait!" the speedy swordsman shouted.

"Drama Queen…" Devon muttered.

"Ignoring that…" DJ sighed and held up the piece of paper he got from Kagura. "I have new evidence that proves undoubtedly who the robber is." He glanced at everyone in the room. "The Katt burglar is…" He raised a finger in the air dramatically to point to the perpetrator.

"JUST GET ON WITH IT!" Every member of the detective agency shouted.

"Cat Burglar…Nami-san!" He brought his finger down, pointing to the orange-haired bank owner.

"HUH!?" Everyone in the room fell over.

"Oi! Bastard! How dare you accuse Nami-san of stealing her own money!" Sanji glared daggers at the young detective.

DJ chuckled and closed his eyes. "There can always only be ONE TRUTH! That's just it Sanji, it's not HER money, even if she thinks it is. The money belongs to the people who trust that bank for her savings, that was my first clue. Remember?"

-flashback-

"Yes, but the one crime I can never forgive is someone stealing MY money!" Nami clenched her fists.

-end flashback-

"The second clue came when I when I realized the truth about the bag of hair. If the criminal truly had a neko neko no mi model Devil Fruit, then they would have been instantly stopped by the seastone fault. The bag was PLANTED there so that we would THINK it was a Devil Fruit user, while the true culprit was the one who was right under our noses!"

"Just because she COULD'VE done it, doesn't mean she did." Niri commented.

"I was getting to that, in fact, Nami-san is one of the ONLY people in the world who could've possibly done it." DJ smirked again. "You see, only she has the key to disable the security system on the vaults, not even Sanji has such a privilege. I'm aware that neither Dusty-chan's stealth, not Axe's Rokushiki techniques could get through the vault, meaning that rules out Lucci and Katt. The few people in the world who would have the power to get into the vault would surely be putting it to more profitable applications."

Nami growled. "How dare you make such wild and unfounded accusations! You have no proof!" She clenched both fists and marched towards the bold investigator. "How do you know it wasn't one of these three? They could have found a way to get around the Kairoseki! You can't be sure that fur wasn't thiers!"

"That's just it, that was the final piece of evidence that made me sure it couldn't possibly be anyone else besides you." He held up the bag of hair and the piece of paper from Kagura. "This test from a top Devil Fruit researcher confirms that this is not Devil Fruit hair at all! You see, the average person doesn't know that there is a very small difference between the fur of a Zoan user and the fur of the actual animal. This fur is ordinary animal fur! In fact, this fur is from a species of cat that is extinct and can only come from a very expensive fur coat, one of less than a dozen in the world!"

Nami gasped as Sanji looked on in horror. "Nami-san has many fur coats like that…"

"Exactly! My suspicions were enough to warrant a search, Inspector, bring it in!" DJ grinned broadly with his eyes closed.

A man with white hair in an unbuttoned coat, his chest showing underneath it and smoking two cigars, walked in, holding the coat in question. "I stopped by inspector Smokey's office and informed him what was going on, that's why I was late." He smirked again.

"Inspector SMOKER." The white-haired man growled with a pissed-off look on his face as he held the coat up to the fur DJ was holding.

"You see, it matches perfectly, you got careless Nami-san." DJ sighed, ignoring the annoyed inspector. "It's always the beautiful ladies."

"Wait, why would Nami order an investigation on a crime she committed herself?" Aro blinked, confused at all this.

"She had to send someone in or else it would seem suspicious." DJ continued. "She was careless and gravely underestimated us, thinking that a new detective agency wouldn't have the connections to figure out the hair piece, it didn't matter which person we chose, as long as she had a scapegoat to turn in for the robberies." He looked to the three former suspects.

"So she planned for us to take the rap for her…" Katt snarled at a continually more sheepish looking Nami.

"But why Nami-san?" Sanji whimpered, his heart seeming to break before their eyes. "Why steal from the vaults? You were making plenty of money off of the interest of the bank loans."

"Follow the money, follow the money, follow the money." DJ sighed, holding up another piece of paper. "Chizzy-chan gave me the records of everyone involved, including Nami-san, she was diagnosed with kleptomania by a psychiatrist, however this theory was dismissed when another expert cleared her, most likely paid off. Someone with a disease like that cannot be trusted to be that close to money without stealing it." DJ closed his eyes once more. "I think that's all, take her away Inspector Smokey…"

"Not so fast!" Nami reached behind her back. "Fine, I did it! But if you don't let me leave, you'll feel the wrath of my Clima… Tact?" She blinked as her weapon wasn't where she had left it.

"HONK!" Pingu held up her large pole weapon, grinning broadly.

"Great work Pingu!" Niri cheered.

Devon blinked. "When did he…"

"I try not to question these things." Kirsty sighed as Smoker cuffed Nami and began to take her away.

"DJ-kun, you can let me off with a warning, right?" Nami spoke sweetly while rubbing DJ's cheek.

An expression of love immediately appeared on DJ's face. "Hai Nami-san! We can let her go, right guys?"

"HELL NO!" Came a resounding shout from everyone else.

"I would've gotten away with it too! If it weren't for those meddling adults! And their stupid penguin!" Nami shouted as she was taken away by Smoker.

"For some reason, that sounds really cliched." DJ sighed as the group began to relax as their first case came to a close and the moon hung high in the sky over Tomahawk manner.

"Is that who you were thinking was the burglar, Axe?" Niri blinked as she looked towards the coordinator.

"Axe looked down to his unfolded piece of paper with his accusation on it that clearly read _"Aro" _"Uhhh… of course it was…" he chuckled nervously and crumpled up the paper and tossed the paper into the fireplace.

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The next day, a loud cheer came through the mansion as Dusty slammed the newspaper on the kitchen table. "Whootness! We're a hit!" She opened the newspaper to page three and pointed to a surprisingly small article about how the Axe-Head Detective Agency had solved the case of the Katt burglar.

"Well, humble beginnings, right Axe?" Azu chuckled. "I've heard worse excuses to drink!" He raised his clay jug and took a long swig. The rest of the group read the article to find out the final outcome.

The owner of Mikan bank, Clerk Nami was convicted and sentenced to prison, however was released that same day on the high bail by an anonymous donor who referred to himself only as "Mr. Prince" She has now begun seeking new employment.

Axe mused for a second. _Hmmm… there's still a lot on my mind, not the least of which is the identity of the person who gave us this house and why. _"Oh well, that can wait! Let's party!" The captain shouted as a cheer erupted throughout the manner.

**---------------------**

**(Hope it was good, it's my first detective fic and I wanted it to be good, there was a lot of facts in there, hope I didn't miss anything, thanks for reading! Please Review!)**

**Next time on Crew of the Axe: One Truth!**

**Dusty: Whoot! Another case, we're on fire!**

**Devon: Kidnapping huh? Guess we're moving up the crime list.**

**Axe: Less talking, more crime solving!**

**Niri: I have a bad feeling about this…**

**Kidnapping at the Goat Mansion! **

**Kirsty: Is that a… goat head!?**

**Next Axe-Head Hint! (A clue to help you solve the next case) Kid's Card (Joker)**


	2. Kidnapping at Goat Mansion

**Case Two: Kidnapping at the Goat Mansion!**

Two dark figures stood overlooking a large building, one dressed completely in white, white cape flowing behind him and his blackish-green cane tapping lightly on the branch of the tree they were in. The other was completely encroached by blackness, only his odd-shaped eyes showing through.

The former looked down on the courtyard of the mansion below. The large house was surrounded by a concrete fence and had many guards around it, each holding a variety of weapons. "Hmmm, odd how the defenses are so high, and yet so weak." The man in white chuckled.

"That's no business of yours, Kid. Just do what we hired you for." the other glared at him.

"Hmph, fine, as long as I get paid, I don't care." He sighed and hoped down stealthily into the courtyard. He knocked some of the guards over the head with his cane, knocking them unconscious before they even saw or heard him. He pulled a playing cared out of his cape and threw it near the doorstep of the mansion.

"There, mission accomplished." The man sighed and hopped once again outside of the courtyard.

"Good, no one can stop us now that the message has been delivered." The figure in the dark smirked. "No one will stop the ultimate plan."

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"It was the first new century, in one hundred years…." DJ hummed as he strummed on a guitar, leaning up against the couch inside Tomahawk Manor. "And when I felt like I should…" he winced as a string on the guitar broke.

"That's a bad omen." Chizuru sighed, not looking up from her book as she sat on the chair opposite him.

"Bad omen my foot, I can never get that song right." The speedy detective sighed. "Now I'm gonna have to get this replaced." He stood up and began to look for a spare string.

"Speedy's right, I mean how much worse can his luck get? He sucks as a swordsman and a musician, he can't get the girl he fawns over to notice him, and there's that thing on his face… oh, that's how it always looks, never mind." Devon cracked as he entered the room.

"Revenge is swifter than I, baka-demon, I'll get you one day." The investigator stuck out his tongue as he resumed his search, riffling through drawers to find where he kept his spare guitar strings.

"Hatcha boys! We have a case!" Niri's voice called from the kitchen as she slammed a piece of paper on the counter. "And this one has the smell of money on it, a rich family." She got a look of greed in her eyes.

"Niri scares me when she gets like this." Dusty's ears twitched as she looked over to the paper.

"Me too Kit." Axe sighed as he also looked at their new case. "We're asked to come to Goat Head mansion?" he cocked his eyebrow. "Where's that?"

"Dunno." Azu shrugged. "Niri's right though, sounds ritzy."

Chizuru sighed, still not looking up from her book and looking generally uninterested. "It's just downtown, how do you guys live here and not know this stuff?"

"Well, we've only been here about two weeks." Niri patted her pet penguin Pingu on the head and chuckled softly. "Now come on guys! Let's go out there and get me…. I mean us, some money!"

----------------------------------

"Well, now we know why this place is called Goat Head mansion." Kirsty and Dusty's eyes twitched as they looked at a large statue in the courtyard of the mansion, greatly resembling a large ram's head.

"Wow, and I thought I knew people with bad taste." Herman sighed as he patted his claw against the statue, feeling the texture and density.

"Welcome my friends!" A small man with white hair and what appeared to be horns growing out of his head ran up to the group. "My name is Meri, I'm the one who called you here, please come inside."

The group of detectives all gave a low whistle as they entered the mansion, thoroughly impressed with the building. "Wow, this place is even nicer than ours." Dusty commented as she looked around, getting a little too close to some expensive and breakable looking things.

"Speaking of which, you got a bathroom in here?" Azu bounced from one foot to the other as he looked around.

"We have four and a half." Meri chuckled. "One is up the stairs and to your right."

"Thanks dude!" The drunk intoxication expert ran up the stares as fast as he could.

"So, why are we here?" Axe approached Meri, reaching out his hand as if to grab the explanation.

"Would our guests like to sit down? Can I get you anything?" A man with glasses in a black suit bowed politely and gave a strange look to the group, adjusting his glasses with his palm.

"Oh, Kurahadol, thank you, perhaps we should take this conversation into the other room." Meri nodded as he opened the door into the large living room, gesturing the group to sit on a couple of the couches and chairs in the room.

"I am merely concerned for Ms. Kaya's safety." Kurahadol nodded softly as he looked to them. "I'll go try and find the poor girl." He began to walk up the stairs.

"Is it just me, or does anyone else get a bad feeling from that guy?" Dusty shivered, earning an agreeing nod from Niri and Kirsty.

-----------------

"Ah, much better." Azu grinned and patted his own pants as he walked out of the bathroom. As he headed back downstairs he caught sight of an open door leading to a room with sunshine filling it. He looked inside the room and saw a rather large window, and more importantly to him, a very pretty blonde woman standing in front of it, wearing a plain white dress, giving her the soft appearance of an angel in the light.

"Well Heeeeelllooo" Azu smirked as he walked into the room. "Azu Baba, nice to meet you." He grinned and extended a hand.

"Oh, hello there." The girl chuckled softly as her attention was drawn from the window to Azu. "I'm Kaya. Sorry about that, just the courtyard is so captivating at this time of day, it's a shame they won't let me out."

"Why not? Are you sick or something?" Azu blinked.

Before Kaya could answer, she was interrupted by the sound of Kurahadol clearing his throat as he stood in the doorway. "Ms. Kaya, you know at a time like this you shouldn't be standing in front of an open window, it's an open invitation to… riffraff…." He adjusted his dark gaze to Azu.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Kurahadol, it's just that it's so beautiful outside at this time of day." Kaya gave an apologetic nod.

"Yo Kaya, who's the buzzkill?" Azu whispered, nodding to the man in black.

"That's Kurahadol, our butler." Kaya answered, walking towards the middle of the room, in between Kurahadol and Azu.

"I'm only concerned for your safety Ms. Kaya, I hope that you will be free to do as you please again after this whole incident is over." Kurahadol walked over to the window, pulling on the rope to bring the shades down, giving the room a darkened look as he glared at Azu, who was now next to him

"You're part of that detective squad downstairs aren't you?" He sneered, "You should be getting back to them, they're getting briefed on the situation now by Meri."

"Oh, yeah, thanks dude." Azu gave a fake smile and rubbed the back of his head, walking past the butler and Kaya, out the room and back downstairs. On his way down, Azu heard the mumbled voices of his comrades as well as Meri, who were discussing the case brought before them.

"So, someone's trying to kidnap Kaya, and you want us to find out who?" Axe placed his cup on the coffee table and looked back at Meri, who was standing in the empty space surrounded by chairs and couches.

"Precisely, the only clue we have is this playing card that was left at our doorstep last night, we're trying to keep this whole mess on a low profile so we hired someone unknown detectives." Meri held out the card he spoke of while Niri hung her head.

"Unknown? How are we supposed to make any money if we're unknown!?" She flailed.

"We're on the case!" DJ shouted, snatching the card from Meri in a flash.

"Baka!" Axe bonked him on the head. "Just because you solved our first case doesn't mean that you're the leader! It's my job to say 'we're on the case'! We're on the case!"

DJ rubbed the new bump on his head as he glanced over the card back and front. The front was a King of Diamonds with writing on it.

"I would suggest you keep your eyes closely on your precious Kaya, if not you might lose her. Of course, if you do, we could always find her for you, for 300 million beli."

DJ read the note aloud, then turned it over to the back. "KID?" he read the back of the card as well.

"It was Austin! He did it!" Dusty pointed to the boy, earning a glare from both Austin and Devon. "Okay… maybe not Austin, but what's KID supposed to mean?"

"Hmmm…no clue." Axe rubbed his chin in thought. "Our first priority should be to get Kaya to safety so the kidnapping doesn't occur."

"But, won't the kidnappers get suspicious if Kaya suddenly disappears?" Kirsty interjected.

"They will, which is why we're going to have doubles in her place." DJ smirked, looking to a few of his nakama.

"We're going to need someone with blonde hair to play her." Azu confirmed, having been the only one to see Kaya yet.

"Hmm, or better yet, two." DJ grinned fiendishly, glancing at Devon. "We're even… demon." He chuckled darkly.

The assistant coordinator looked a little freaked out by this. "…W-Why are you looking at me like that Speedy?"

---------------------------------------

"I can't believe you guys talked me into this!" Devon blushed as he tugged on the dress the others had put him in. His hair had been combed down to Kaya's length and the girls had done their best to make him look feminine, having little luck as he still very much looked like a man in drag.

"Oh come on Dev, be secure in your masculinity for once." Niri finished her work on his hair. "We need two doubles to be able to distract the kidnappers, and maybe if they look at you from the back, they'll try to attack you and you can kick their asses."

"How can I be secure while wearing a fucking dress!!!!?" The blonde 'man' shouted while messing with the changes the girls had made. "I swear I'm going to kill that speedy bastard!"

"Payback's a bitch." Kirsty sighed, also wearing the same dress as Devon, looking much better in it than the swordsman. "Maybe if we position ourselves at opposite ends we can distract them so they won't know the real Kaya is hiding in the basement with Kurahadol." The medical expert sighed and tugged on the hem of the dress lightly.

"I'll kill him, I'll kill him, I'll kill him dead, like with a rock or something, yeah, that'll do it." Devon muttered, obviously not paying attention.

"I don't trust Kaya with that guy." Azu muttered. "He gives me a bad vibe."

"I assure you that Kurahadol is our most trusted butler, he would not do anything to harm Ms. Kaya, he loves her dearly." Meri set a tray of tea on the coffee table for the detectives.

"I don't know, something still doesn't feel right." Dusty picked up some of the tea, adding almost the whole cup of sugar into it before getting it snatched away by Niri.

"No way you're getting that much sugar fox girl." The weapons expert sighed and gave the cup to Pingu, who happily drank the sugary delight.

The group discussion was cut short by a high-pitched scream coming from the basement. "Shit, Kaya!" Axe raced down the stairs to the wine cellar/basement, only to find Kurahadol on the ground, a bloody mark on his forehead and Kaya nowhere to be seen.

"What the hell happened?" Azu looked around, unsure of what was going on.

"T-There was a man in white… he took Ms. Kaya before I had a chance to do anything." The butler whimpered as he crawled back up to his knees, adjusting his glasses with his palm again.

"What's that?" DJ noticed something as he walked down the stairs, one of the last ones on the scene despite his speed. He picked up the object, looking at it, another playing card with the word 'KID' on the back, this time the card was a Joker instead of a King.

"Liar!" Azu pointed to Kurahadol. "It was you! You abducted Kaya! How could anyone have snuck in and out without us seeing? Especially someone wearing a color as alarming as white!?"

"Yeah, the butler did it!" Dusty shouted.

"No Dusty-chan, he didn't." DJ inspected the card. "Whether Kurahadol is a criminal or not is yet to be proven, however this is a crime he didn't commit."

"What are you talking about DJ-kun?" Niri raised an eyebrow to the brunette investigator.

"I mean look at this," He read the card aloud.

"Remember, 300 million beli,

P.S. follow the panda…"

"Kurahadol couldn't have gotten Kaya out of here and back onto the floor before we got down here after we heard her scream, besides, I saw this man in white on his way out while I was in the courtyard, that's why I was late." DJ grinned, thankful to have speedy eyes as well as speedy legs. "Take a good look at the back of this card." He pointed to the side with 'KID' written on it.

"So? It says KID, we already said we don't know what that means." Devon came back into the wine cellar, changed back into his jean jacket and pants, giving DJ a 'I will kill you while you sleep' look.

"You're reading it wrong." Chizuru sighed. "That part of the card is ambiguous, not only does it say KID, but it also says 1412." The record expert sighed as she pulled a file out of her hat.

The rest of the group besides Chizuru and DJ looked closely at the card, seeing that the K on the card was actually a scrunched up 1 and a 4 and that the ID was really a 1 and a 2 in the same messy pattern.

"His name is the Kaitou Kid. Otherwise known as the Phantom Thief Kid, international criminal number 1412." Chizuru layed the Kid's file on the floor for everyone to see, showing a clear picture of a brunette man wearing a monocle and a top hat, cape flowing behind him.

"Wow, he looks kinda like DJ." Kirsty commented, looking to the investigator.

"That's him! That's the man who took Ms. Kaya!" Kurahadol shouted as soon as he saw the picture.

"I thought as much." DJ rubbed his thumb against his chin.

"So? Case closed! We know who took her." Dusty smirked and put her hands on her hips, turning to Meri, "Can we get paid now?"

"Baka!" Niri slapped the fox girl upside the head. "We still have to FIND her and bring her back."

"Niri-chan's right, we still don't know where Kid's taken her." DJ looked at the card again. "Wonder what 'Follow the Panda' means."

"Maybe it means there's going to be a giant panda who will pick us up and carry us to where Kaya is!" Dusty exclaimed.

"No, maybe Pandaman will help us!" Kirsty shouted.

"Pandaman?" Niri raised an eyebrow.

The medical expert nodded. "Pandaman is the famous superhero who was made fun of us as a kid because he saw Kaguya-hime in the bamboo stumps, but he trained and became strong and defends the weak!"

"You really gotta stop reading those comic books Kirsty…" Niri sweatdropped.

A small honk from Pingu caused Azu to look to the discarded dress that Devon was wearing. "This was the same dress Kaya was wearing, right?" He nodded to Meri.

The servant nodded. "That was taken straight out of her closet, I'm surprised is fit the young man."

"Barely." Devon muttered.

Azu inspected the dress, finding a rather peculiar logo on the tag. "Doskoi… Panda?"

"Yes, it's Ms. Kaya's favorite brand of… dress." Meri's eyes widened.

"That must be it! They must be keeping her in one of the old Doskoi panda factories!" DJ shouted.

"Even if we find this guy, can we go up against an international criminal? I think we're a bit out of our league guys." Herman sighed.

"It doesn't matter, we're detectives and we have a job to do, even if that means going up against the whole world." Axe's eyes narrowed. "Alright guys, here's the plan. There are five Doskoi Panda factories that are inactive at this time, two of us will go to each one, Dusty and DJ, Kirsty and Devon, me, Niri and Chizzy, Azu and Austin, Pingu and Herman. We'll take portable Den Den Mushi's to notify the others if we find anything, move out Axe-Heads!"

---------------------------------

The figure in the black shadow chuckled as he sat with a bound and gagged Kaya, along with the Kaitou Kid. "It worked, they placed all the blame on you, and they have no idea I had anything to do with it, pathetic fools." The figure smirked, grabbing Kaya's face roughly and then turning it away again.

"You're overconfident." The Kid sighed, twirling his cane lightly. "And there is much you don't understand."

"What's that supposed to mean!?" The figure huffed angrily.

"It means there is no honor among thieves, especially Phantom thieves." The Kid pointed his cane at the figure, extending a small green blade from it. In the blink of an eye, before the figure could even grab his weapons, the Kid dashed forward, stabbing the blade into the other person, letting him fall into a bloody heap on the ground.

"W-why?" The figure questioned, his odd eyes looking up at the Kid. "You were supposed to be on our side!"

"I'm on my own side, I'm narrowing the field of criminals, that makes things easier for me, letting go of 300 million Beli is nothing for me. Besides, I wanted to test the skills of the new detectives in town to see if they could follow my clues." The brunette man in white smirked broadly. "By the way, thanks to the clue I gave them, those detective fools should be here any minute, see ya." He twirled his cane as he walked out, leaving the man laying on the floor and Kaya still bound to the chair.

------------------------------------------

"Damn, where is that station!?" Azu cursed as he ran around the city. It was getting dark as they searched for the Panda factories, the stars becoming prevalent and the full moon shining brightly

**"This is team Dusty-chan." DJ's voice came over the Den Den Mushi. "Our search is a big negative, no Kaya at this Doskoi Panda station." **

**"Same here, me and Pingu-kun got nothing." Niri's voice called out, followed by a loud honk. **

**"Me and Dev have nothing, what about you guys?" Kirsty phoned in.**

**"Baka! Stop staring at her!" Niri shouted. "Me and Axe have no Kaya either." She sighed desperately.**

Azu finally found the large building with a panda symbol on it, kicking open the door and finding nothing inside but old machinery. "Damn, nothing here either." He sighed."Then where the hell is it?!" Devon roared.

**"I have no clue, damn!" DJ cursed into his Den Den Mushi. "Wait a second, Azu!"**

"Yeah? Sup?" The intoxication expert held the snail to his ear. "Take a good look at the ice cream shop near your location! What does it look like to you?"

"What!? This is no time for a midnight snack DJ!""Just freaking look!"

"Fine," Azu sighed as he exitted the Doskoi Panda building, looking around and seeing where DJ and Dusty were, on top of a rather large hill next to another panda building. He spotted the ice cream shop across from where he was, visible from where DJ was but closer to his position. The sign out front had a few vanilla scoops topped beneath a few chocolate scoops in the shape of… "A PANDA!"

**"DJ-kun, you're a genius!" Dusty exclaimed, figuring out the clue at the same time as Azu. "Azu, you and Austin head towards that ice cream shop as fast as you can! Kaya's there, I'm sure of it!"**

"Oi, gotcha!" Azu grinned as he took off running towards the ice cream store with a panda-shaped sign.

------------------------------------------

"Whoa, what happened here?" Azu and Austin both raised an eyebrow as they looked around. On the ground was an odd-looking merman with eight arms, bleeding from his chest, and Kaya, bound and gagged to a chair.

"Hang on Kaya, we'll get you out of there!" Azu shouted while Austin ran to untie the girl. "Yo, guys, get over here, Kaya's alright but it looks like this guys' been stabbed." He called into his Den Den Mushi.

"Oh thank you two!" Kaya gave Austin a kiss on the forehead and then ran over to Azu, wrapping her arms around him and giving him a big kiss.

"Azu? Azu! Is everyone alright?" Herman, DJ, Dusty and Pingu all rushed in at the same time. "You okay Azu?" DJ blinked.

"Abababa…." The intoxication expert babbled, left speechless by the surprise kiss. "Does this mean I get lucky?" He smirked lecherously after regaining his composure.

"Don't push it." Kaya and the rest sweatdropped as the other detectives entered the shop.

"What happened to him?" Axe pointed to the merman, who Herman was now kneeling beside.

"Hatchan… how could you?" The lobster merman looked like he was about to burst into tears.

"Poor guy, that must be a member of his old gang." Niri sighed, hugging Herman lightly around the thin part of his body she could get her arms around.

Everyone knew Herman used to be a part of a notorious gang, but he wasn't a bad person, his old days just gave him an insight into the criminal mind in order to help ensure justice. "My guess would be the Kid turned on him, but why?" DJ narrowed his eyes, "I don't have a good feeling about this case."

He sighed. "Maybe Chizzy-chan was right, maybe breaking that guitar string was a bad omen. I get the feeling… we might not have solved this case… if HE hadn't let us." He walked out the door and looked up at the night stars.

"Kaitou Kid… why did you help us?"

---------------------------------

The Kid smirked as he stood on a tree branch, on a cliff overlooking the city, in clear view of the ice cream shop where the Axe-Heads were. "Good, so they managed to figure it out. Perhaps these detectives have some talent after all, tis a shame I'll probably have to kill them." He laughed into the full moon as he twirled his cane. "Good luck in your cases… Mr. Detective!"

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**DJP: Alright, hope it was good! Sorry if it was confusing, a little more in-depth story buildup in this chapter, hope it was good, sorry if it's not, please review either way!**

**PS: The Kaitou Kid is from Case Closed/Detective Conan and does not belong to me, neither do any of the other One Piece characters or Ocs besides DJ.**

**Next time on Crew of the Axe: One Truth!**

**Conan: Hey, who are you guys?**

**Dusty: He's sooo cute! –huggles Conan-**

**DJM: Kudo-dono! What the hell happened to you!?**

**Devon: Who is this shorty? No way he could be a detective!**

**Conan: I need your help DJ… with a VERY important case…**

**Next time! The New Sherlock Holmes! **

**DJM: Awesome! I get to work with Kudo-dono!**

**Next Axe-Head hint: White Wine Pill! **

**PSS: Sorry about the vagueness of the preview and hint, Writer's block. **


	3. The Next Sherlock Holmes

****

Don't Own One Piece or Detective Conan

DJP: It's fanmail time!

DJM: -comes in with a bag of letters-

DJP: Let's see… 'When are you going to update One Truth?' … not answering that… 'You lazy…' not saying that word… 'update your' … not saying that word either '-ing story before I…' Oh my… 'When are you updating your detective fic? It's been a really long time…' Sonofa… is that all people ask about nowadays?

DJM: Your threats… err… prayers have been answered people! Here's the update!

PS Some things were changed from the last preview because of plot adjustments, so hang in there, it should still be good.

--

Case Three: The Next Sherlock Holmes

A sullen aura was cast around Tomahawk Manor a few days after the Goat-Head Mansion case. The case itself had gone well and the Axe-Head detective agency has made a killing off of the kidnapping, however two of its members were still very depressed about how it had transpired.

DJ had been locked in his room most of the time and Herman also seemed very saddened by what had happened after the case. Devon leaned his head back on the couch and let out a frustrated groan. "I can't take it anymore! What the hell is wrong with those two?"

"Well, Hatchan was one of Herman's friends, it must be hard knowing that his former friends and gang are around and committing crimes now…" Kirsty looked to him before looking back to her clipboard full of notes.

"But the doctors said the squid guy would live, right?" Dusty looked up to the others from her place laying on the floor.

"He's an octopus Dusty, but yes, he'll be fine, he just lost a lot of blood. But I still can't imagine it would be a very pleasant experience for Herman…" Chizuru answered, not once looking up from her book as she turned another page.

"And Macleod?" Devon cracked his neck and stood up.

"He's upset because we got that note that helped us solve the crime, nothing's hurt about him besides his deductive pride." Niri finished polishing her guns and did an imaginary target practice (on Dusty) to make sure the alignment on everything was alright.

"Macleod has pride? Hm, then why does he always walk around here like a beaten pup?" The blonde assistant coordinator sighed and stretched. "Whatever, I better go pound some sense into him…" He left, heading for the bedrooms.

A moment of silence went through the living room as everyone else continued what they were doing. Kirsty and Dusty looked up sharply as Chizuru snapped her book shut and left the room, going outside and closing the door without saying a word. "Hmm, wonder what that was about…" The medical expert sighed and set her clipboard down. "Better go check on Devon… he can be a little harsh sometimes."

The doctor stood up and walked in the same direction Devon had gone, but stopped as she heard a crash in the room DJ and Devon were in. 'Oh god, what is he doing in there…' She thought and put her ear to the door to investigate.

"OW! Get it out, get it out, get it out!" She heard DJ's panicky voice along with more thrashing sounds.

"What the hell…?" Kirsty whispered, listening more closely.

"You big baby, it's not even that big, hold still and relax, I'll pull it out…" She heard Devon sigh.

"It feels HUGE!" The investagator's voice shouted through the door. "Get it out now!"

A sharp yelp was heard and another sigh from Devon. "There, you big baby, it's out now. You're such a wuss, I've had way bigger ones in me. You should just take it like a man instead of whining so much!"

DJ whimpered. "Easy for you to say, how would you like one in you, it stings like hell!"

Kirsty's eyes widened. 'What the HELL!? What are they doing in there? Is this what he meant by 'pound some sense into him!?'' She fell onto the floor in surprise with a light thud, causing the two men to open the door and look down at her.

"… What are you doing Kirsty?" Devon's eye twitched as he watched the blonde woman sit on her knees quickly.

"Nothing! Absolutely nothing! I didn't hear any yaoi fanservice if that's what you mean!" The doctor chuckled nervously and sighed.

"What the hell are you talking about…? You gotta stop reading those comic books…"

"I had a splinter and Dev helped me pull it out…" DJ blinked. "… You have a dirty mind Kirsty-san…"

--

Once Devon had coerced DJ out of his room, the group gathered in the main hallway for an announcement Chizuru had to make. The archivist smirked as she stood by a door. "I have a surprise that should cheer you all up."

"You're going to strip?" Azu suggested, only to be punched to the ground by Niri.

"No, we have a guest…" Chizuru opened the door and everyone watched as a young man walked in wearing a domed plaid hat with flaps on the sides and a messed up suit with an oddly sized bow tie and a pipe in the upper pocket. His dark brown hair was also messy, but his blue eyes looked as if he was scanning everyone in the room thoroughly. "Everyone… meet Kudo Holmes, the world's greatest detective…"

"Omigod!" A red blur rushed past the group and Kudo instantly fell to the ground. "KUDO-DONO!" DJ glomped the great detective with a look of stars in his eyes. "What the heck is someone like you doing here!?"

The man adjusted his odd hat and looked to Chizuru for an explanation. The red-head archivist simply smiled and shook her head. "Don't mind him, he's excitable, but at least he's not depressed anymore. Mr. Holmes here was in the area and I decided to look him up to see if she could help us out since some of our group are feeling a bit disheartened, that and I knew he was DJ's hero." She giggled as she watched the investigator gush over the world-class detective.

"Always happy to invite new detectives into town." Kudo brushed himself off and fixed his hat. "Besides, I heard how you guys solved the bank robbery and Goat-Head kidnapping and thought I'd check you out. I'm especially interested in you…" He looked DJ over for a moment. "… fanboy-san."

A look of shock came over the brunette swordsman as Devon let out a roar of laughter. "Fanboy-san… I like this guy already!"

The group went into the living room and got comfortable while Niri looked over the oddly dressed newcomer. "So… what exactly makes you the world's greatest detective, if you don't mind me asking Mr. Holmes."

"Kudo, please my good lady." The man smiled. "I was chosen as the successor to the last world's greatest detective, the detective king if you will, Sherlock D. Holmes."

The whole group looked at Axe for a moment before the coordinator shook his hands in front of him. "No relation… that I know of."

Kudo continued his story. "After Sherlock died, there were a few people chosen to be his successors and a number of tests were put forth, I was the one who was chosen to continue his legacy."

"So, you're his son or something? I mean… Kudo Holmes?" Dusty tilted her head as he fox ears twitched slightly.

"No, Holmes isn't my real last name, for security purposes, that is kept secret."

"Why's that? It's not like someone can kill with just a name…" Dusty tilted her head again.

"Stranger things have happened, Kit." Chizuru smiled.

"…However." Kudo continued. "Those who continue the lineage of the world's greatest detectives take the last name Holmes as an honorary title." Kudo explained. "Now, enough of the Q&A, I came here because I would like to ask if you would like some experience helping me with a very important case…"

Before anyone else could answer, DJ sat up and squealed. "Yes! Of course we would Kudo-dono! It would be an honor!"

The world's greatest detective smirked at his enthusiasm. 'Hopefully he'll calm down when we get there…' "Good, let's go then shall we?"

--

The group of detectives, led by Kudo arrived at a place that seemed very similar to the Goat-Head mansion, it was indeed a large dwelling, but lacked the odd quality of goats that their former employers had shown.

Niri's eyes quickly turned to beli signs as she looked around the ornate sculptures around the large yard. "This is going to be great!" She squealed.

"Why's that?" Herman looked around before looking back to Niri.

"Because these guys must be filthy stinking rich!" She examined the statue. "If they can afford all this useless crap, then they can afford to pay us a fortune!"

Kudo laughed as he watched her. "Many in your group are excitable, aren't they?" He turned to Axe, who was walking beside him.

"Yeah, we have quite a motley crew." The coordinator snickered as he watched his long-time friend gush over the treasures in a similar manner as DJ had earlier.

The detective turned back to Niri for a moment. "Since I am the world's greatest detective, many of my employers are of similar social standing to this, you'll get there soon too I think." He gave a small smirk.

After a long trek through the grounds, the door to the mansion finally opened. A white-haired man wearing a cross around his neck on top of his butler suit bowed as he welcomed them. "Greetings Sir Kudo, and to your guests as well." He smiled politely. "I am Reltu, the late master's servant."

"L-Late?" Niri and Dusty gulped. "Y-You mean like he's dead?"

"Regrettably." Retlu bowed his head reverently and nodded. "Please, we must find out who killed him. The police are already here, follow me."

The group followed the butler into a room that simply had a dark aura about it. Police agents were strewn about the room inspecting things while a chalk outline was on the floor next to a chair in the room that was otherwise fairly empty aside from tables and bookcases. The only thing sticking out was a half-open bodybag on a cart that had a few agents looking over it.

Kudo stopped as soon as he went into the room, looked around to the bodybag and to the crime scene. He closed his eyes and smirked triumphantly. "Case Closed!" He announced.

"What!?" Dusty, Kirsty, Austin (silently), and Axe looked shocked at the man while the others just looked mildly surprised, DJ looked excited like he was watching a professional athlete at a sporting event.

"This case is boring and ridiculously easy… it doesn't even deserve my time…" Kudo pulled up a chair and crossed his legs. "I'll leave it up to you guys."

"Gee thanks… arrogant bastard…" Devon growled.

"That was amazing Kudo-dono, you figured it out already?" DJ smirked and looked around as well.

"Why won't you solve it…?" Azu asked. "Ya lazy or something?"

"No my dear pervert, you see crime solving is not just my job, it's my hobby. It's really about justice for me, while I do get a good feeling about promoting good and exposing evil, being a detective is fun for me, and as such, I only take cases that pique my interest, boring or easy cases will not do." Kudo leaned back. "Feel free to solve it and take the money, I don't care."

DJ continued inspecting the room and looked over the chalk outline for a moment. 'I have to solve this case easy, if Kudo-dono says it's easy, then it can't be all that difficult…' He looked over the body of a middle-aged man with blue dreadlocks. He had a single clean cut across his neck, nearly separating his head from his neck.

The others looked into the bag as well, Dusty nearly puking at the sight of the corpse. "Chiz, what do you have on this guy?" Axe tilted his head to the archivist.

Chizuru pulled a piece of paper out of her hat and read off of it. "His name is Roshio, he became very rich from gambling, as his house can attest, but that didn't exactly save him from whatever did that, did it?" She continued the paper. "It says there are rumors that he got some of his gains cheating illegally or through extortion, but this is all mere speculation of course."

"Please, sit down and take your time to figure this out." Reltu bowed again, offering them a tray of cake with strawberries on top.

"Great… just what I wanted… to eat lunch next to a stiff…" Niri mumbled, shivering at Roshio's corpse before taking a piece of cake and sitting at the opposite side of the table.

"Well, what do you think Kirst? Does the wound tell you anything?" Axe mumbled, his mouth full of the cake he had eaten in one bite.

"Whatever it was, it was a very clean cut, almost looks like an executioner's guillotine chopped his head right off." The doctor observed and pushed her cake to the side, causing a few of the group to do the same from the image of the execution in their minds.

"We've found the culprits!" One of the police officers shouted before pushing two handcuffed males through the door into the room. One was a blonde man with a scar above his right eye. The other was a dark-haired man wearing a tattered straw hat with a scar under his left eye. "Bellamy and Monkey D. Luffy, you are the murderers!" The officer exclaimed.

"That seems rather harsh…" Kirsty raised an eyebrow. "What makes you think that these guys killed him right off the bat anyhow?"

One of the other officers looked at his clipbook. "Witnesses show that Bellamy has a grudge against Roshio for supposedly cheating him in a high-stakes poker match, and because of his… tendencies and history, Bellamy is most likely the perpetrator."

The cop who brought both men in turned to the detectives, holding a long object wrapped in a cloth. Austin unwrapped it, only to retch a bit when he saw it was a sword completely covered and slightly rusted with blood. "Mr. Luffy here was found with Bellamy carrying that sword. We tested the blood on it, it's Roshio's."

"Oi! I was only asking this guy if he dropped his sword, and where the nearest restaurant was... I'm hungry." He hung his head, only to pick it up when he saw the table. "You guys gonna eat that cake?"

"Help yourself…" Several of the detectives who had pushed their cake aside said in unison. They watched as the rubberman stretched his arm, grabbed the cakes and inhaled them inhumanly fast.

DJ watched Luffy carefully, smirking softly and picking up the bloody sword on the table. "Think fast!" He shouted, throwing the sword at Luffy.

"Huh?" Luffy turned just as the sword hit him in the face, toppling him over. "Oi! What was that for, bastard!"

"Hmm…" DJ scooped up some more of his cake in a fork, sticking it in his mouth and thinking for a moment. He opened his eyes wide for a moment, smiling.

"Did you figure it out DJ-kun?" Dusty raised an eyebrow to her teammate.

"THIS IS GREAT CAKE!" He grinned stupidly. "Herman, we have to get the recipe for this!"

"You idiot!" Niri gave him a smack on the back of the head. "Don't worry us like that!"

"I've got it!" Axe smirked. "Bellamy framed Luffy for the murder! There's no way that guy could have killed Roshio!" The coordinator grinned, earning a laugh from Kudo, who was remaining detached while the rookie detectives did their work.

"That's a hell of a guess Axe." DJ stabbed his cake's strawberry with his fork, sticking it into his mouth while speaking, "But you're wrong…" Kudo smirked and chuckled, leaning forward to hear his theory.

"The killer is…" He set his plate down and stood up, closing his eyes as he pointed dramatically. "Reltu! You did it!" He pointed to the butler.

The servant seemed taken aback, "W-What? What makes you think it could be me? The evidence seems to point to Luffy and Bellamy!"

"That's just how you wanted it to look… didn't you?" DJ smirked, walking over to the butler. "Kudo-dono was right, this case was too easy."

"What do you mean?" Kirsty blinked. "What could possibly make that obvious?"

"Evidence number one… Monkey D. Luffy is a complete and utter dumbass!"

"Hey!"

"Shush, I'm helping you." DJ grinned. "You see, not only does he not have the malicious intent to commit a murder, but when I threw him that sword, he had no idea how to catch it, anyone with any ability to use a sword wisely would be able to catch it on instinct alone."

"That stuff can be faked!" The policeman interjected.

"Also, I'm surprised you didn't notice sooner Kirsty-san…" The investigator smirked and pointed to the body, ignoring the statement. "Look at the wound, then look at the sword." He tossed her the evidence.

The medical expert looked over both pieces carefully, her eyes widening quickly. "Of course! It's so obvious!"

Dusty and Azu tilted their heads. "Huh? What is?"

"This sword is rusty and dull, but the cut is very clean, like it had been done with piano wire or something. That means that whoever planted the blood on that sword and gave it to Luffy was framing him, making sure that he and Bellamy would get framed!" The doctor nodded at her observation.

"Well whatdya know…" Kudo chuckled softly and leaned back in his seat.

'He knew all of that simply by walking in the room? …What is he?' Devon thought to himself.

"That could still mean Bellamy planted the sword to frame Luffy!" One of the police investigators shouted in defense of Reltu.

"That would be true… except look at the placement of the body and the condition of this room… it's perfect besides where Roshio fell over, whoever did this was someone Roshio trusted, because no one broke in and he was certainly not expecting to die. He would have been very careful if Bellamy had come over unannounced thanks to the grudge they had between them." Devon pointed out, followed by a nod from DJ, Kudo, and Kirsty, all of whom had already figured out this case.

"May I see your cross Mr. Reltu?" DJ held out his hand, smiling politely despite the situation. The butler looked hesitant, but seeing that he was surrounded by armed detectives and police officers, he handed the charm over to the detective. DJ pulled at piece that attached the cross to Reltu's neck, running it between his fingers and seeing a small speck of blood appear on his fingertip. "Piano wire… just as Kirsty-san said."

"So… the butler did it, with piano wire, in the study?" Azu laughed softly.

"I think that's enough evidence to convict." DJ turned around and closed his eyes. "Take him away…"

"No!" Reltu stuggled against the policemen, pulling a pill out of his cuff and swallowing it quickly before the police could stop him. "For Lord Scythes!" He let out a death rattle and clutched his neck before falling limp.

"A suicide pill… how horrible…" Kirsty gasped.

"… Scythes?" Axe, Devon, DJ, and Kudo said together.

As if in answer to their question, a laughing sound came from Reltu's black coat, the policeman holding him up laid him down and opened the coat, finding a tiny transmitter hidden within the pocket.

"Very good Kudo… you too Detective-san…" A voice came from the transmitter and laughed in the direction of Kudo and DJ. "I've been listening to you this whole time… It's quite impressive that you caught Reltu. I'll just have to be more careful from now on!"

"Who are you!?" Axe growled at the speaker.

"By your rules, Coordinator Axe, if I hid my true name by using my weapon's name instead, I am Scythes."

"How does he know who I am…" Axe muttered.

"Axe, Scythes, what's next? Knives?" Dusty questioned

"What kind of stupid bad guy name is Knives?" Azu laughed.

"I think it sounds kind of cool…" Devon smirked.

"Shush you guys, evil threats going on here." Niri whispered to quiet them down.

"What do you want?" DJ snarled towards Scythe's voice.

"I simply want what is best for everyone, the cleansing of the sinners." Scythes laughed mockingly. "Esspecially those who have eaten of the devil's fruit, that is why I arranged for Luffy and Bellamy to be framed and executed, that way there would be two less in my way."

"Why those with Devil Fruit abilities?" Kirsty asked.

"Those who have eaten of the forbidden fruit of the devil have made a great sin against god by trying to obtain tainted power which god has forbidden. I am the enforcer of god himself, no, I AM GOD!" Scythes roared.

"If I had a hundred beli for every time I heard that…" Luffy, Axe, and Devon mumbled together.

"I will punish those who have sinned and bring forth the time of tribulation so those who fear god can flourish. Anyone who gets in my way will be punished as well, farewell detectives… choose your sides wisely in the time ahead." The transceiver crackled and died.

"So, we have a religious nutcase out there killing people, and judging by that guy." Kudo looked at Reltu's corpse. "He has a pretty strong following."

Axe smirked, which turned into a smile, which turned into a downright stupid grin. "Alright! Sounds exciting! Bring it on Scythes!"

"Uh-oh… he has that look in his eyes again…" Dusty mumbled to Herman.

"Heh, it does…" DJ smirked with a gleam in his eyes.

"Huh…" Luffy smiled stupidly. "With that scar across your eye and that determined look in your eyes, you remind me of someone." He patted the straw hat on his head, as if remembering the person by the hat alone.

DJ smiled as well and looked to Luffy. "No charge…"

"No charge!?" Niri shouted. "Why the hell not!? These guys are loaded!"

"One," He looked to Reltu and Roshio, anyone who was going to pay us is dead. "And two…" He turned to Luffy." You remind me of someone as well…" He turned to Axe and began to walk out. "Besides, we still have a bit of money left from the Goat-Head Mansion case…"

--

Meanwhile, four dark figures, two males, two females, stood around a room with one sitting on a highly decorated throne with a pentacle in the center, their faces obscured by the darkness. The slimmer male figure bowed before the seated lady, handing her a map. "Mistress, it appears Scythes has made his appearance in this city."

The looked at the map and smirked. "Finally we can have our revenge on that god-toting bastard, and the man who ruined our lives! The bearer will be there most likely as well… let us depart for the city and show these people why were are still one of the most feared of races!"

--

****

Hmmm, got some plot going on here, wonder what Scythes is all about, and who these four people are at the end. Hope this satisfies you for a bit, and I'll try to keep the updates coming as fast as possible!

Next time on One Truth:

Herman: I can't believe Hatchan helped kidnap Kaya…

Axe: That's all in the past big fella, we have to focus on the present case.

??: Don't call anyone… you know if you do all you'll end up with is a bunch of dead bodies…

Herman: I know who did it! I just have to prove it!

Shades of red: Redemption of a Fish-man

Herman: There's no escaping the One Truth!

Next Detective Hint: Seastone

PS: I originally intended for Kudo to be a representation of Shinichi/Jimmy Kudo from Case Closed/Detective Conan, but instead I made him a compilation of famous detectives from anime and other literature.


	4. Shades of Red: Redemption of a Fishman

****

Don't Own One Piece or Detective Conan

Case Four: Shades of Red: Redemption of a Fish-Man

The day after the case of Roshio's murder and the revelation of the crime boss and serial killer Scythes, Kudo remained with the Axe-Head detectives for a brief period in order to help them fully understand their situation. He, Kirsty, Niri, Devon, Axe, Pingu, and Chizuru sat around the meeting table for a serious discussion. The world's greatest detective sighed. "I'm sorry to have gotten you all caught up in this, I should have told you while I was really in the area when I first came here." He took off his odd hat and ran his fingers through his hair. "I'm tracking a few highly wanted criminals and crime bosses that are rumored to be in the area. Most of all International Criminal 1412, also known as the 'Kaitou Kid' and of course, this Scythes guy now."

"Why are there so many criminals here though Kudo-san?" Kirsty raised an eyebrow. "Why here? Isn't there a better place for them to hang out?"

"Actually no…" Kudo put the pipe from his pocket into his mouth, chewing on the end a bit without lighting it. "The police force in this town is pathetic, the only liable force is under Inspector Smoker's care. All those who fight crime have a bad habit of… dying in this town."

Dusty, Kirsty, and Pingu gulped. "Dying?" **("Honk?") **

The detective took the pipe out of his mouth and examined it for a moment, toying with it in his fingers for a bit. "Now that I'm here, and you guys seem to be doing well as well, hopefully we can break that habit… I brought you along with me on Roshio's case to test whether you could help me, and you passed with flying colors. I'm going to need more than the police's help on this case. Will you help me?"

Axe smirked and put up his feet on a stool, a gleam in his eye. "Of course… what kind of detective… no, what kind of man would I be if I passed up an adventure this exciting?"

--

Herman looked into the wok of chicken he was frying, his mind elsewhere as he thought about recent events. Kudo had declined his invitation to stay for lunch, leaving on some urgent business. It was to be expected that such a great crime-solver would surely be busy in such a crime-infested town. The encounter with Scythes concerned him, but not as much as what had happened before that with Kaitou and Hatchan

The Fish-man sighed. _'The line between good and evil should be clear… but it isn't always so neat…' _He thought to himself, remembering his days when he was a part of Arlong's gang before coming to reside with the Axe-Head detectives in an attempt to make retribution for his wrongs. _'In a world that hates our kind, it's natural to want to be with others like you and who will accept you, but at what price? Arlong may look similar to me, but we're nothing alike inside…I would never take joy in hurting people like he does. But I can hardly blame those who align themselves with him like Hatchan. Not everyone is lucky like me, not everyone can find someone in the world who accepts them, nevertheless a whole group like I did. Hatchan's a good example, since he's not a bad person at all, but what other choice did he have in a world that abandons Fish-men than to join Arlong? Even the company of an evil person is better than being all alone…' _

Azu sniffed the air. "Something smells good… is that… lobster?"

"Holy crap, Herman!" Niri screamed. "Your hand!"

The food expert looked down to see that while he was lost in his thought, his hand fell into the wok and began sizzling away. "OW!! Not again, damn I'm on fire!"

After a few panicked shouts and four letter words, Niri called Kirsty in to treat Herman's burn. She put some cooling pads on his hand before wrapping moistened bandages on his hand. "Man, you're lucky for that tough skin of yours Herman, if it were anyone else, the burns would have been much worse."

"Sometimes I don't think I'm so lucky…" The Fish-man murmured, his eyestalks turning away.

The doctor stopped bandaging and raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?" She looked back at the wok where he had burned himself. "And what were you thinking about so much that you didn't notice your own hand burning anyway?"

Herman stood up and sighed. "It's nothing… the past is the past…" He trailed off, finished wrapping the bandage himself and walked out of the room without another word.

--

While something seemed odd from before, the detectives still needed to earn an income, so they had accepted another case from a museum that was worried about one of it's treasures. The group of detectives walked up the marble steps in into the large building which had a plaque of a hundred hands, stemmed out like branches on a tree, holding up a globe. Dusty walked up to the plaque beside it and read aloud. " Dedicated to the Cien Fleur Museum, where History is the most beautiful flower."

Axe let out a low whistle. "This place sure is classy, feel like I'm spending money just standing here, oh well, better make it worth it." He grunted and sighed as a sound came from his backside. "There." He let out a big grin.

"Eww, Axe!" Niri held her nose and waved at the coordinator threateningly. "At least have some decency, it's a museum for god's sake!"

"Not like I farted on any of the artifacts or anything…" He defended.

The group watched as a beautiful young woman in a slightly open purplish dress shirt and black pants walked up to them slowly and smiled politely, almost too much so. "Greetings, my name is Nico Robin, and I am curator of this establishment."

Instantly, DJ and Azu rushed forward, the former bending on a knee and uttering poetry to the beauty, the latter with… less noble intentions. Azu was bonked on the head by the end of Niri's pistol and DJ was eventually dragged away by Dusty. Axe stepped forward and rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry about that, they're… well morons."

"HEY!"

Robin put a hand to her mouth and giggled lightly. "It's alright, now if you'll follow me…"

"I'll follow you anywhere Robin-chwan!"

__

BONK!

"But my heart still belongs foremost to Dusty-chan!" DJ rubbed his new bump on the back of his head.

"Well then, let's get going shall we?" Robin turned around and began walking, beckoning for the detectives to follow. "One of our artifacts was stolen recently, and we've gotten a new and extremely rare artifact as well and we want to make sure that it doesn't have the same fate…"

"So which one of your treasures was stolen?" Chizuru tilted her hat downward while following close behind Robin.

"Well, we consider History to be the only real treasure, but our artifacts are important as well, since they reveal history to us. It was… Oh, hello." The female curator stopped while they approached three men in security uniforms.

One man was short with half of his face badly burned, the other was a blind man with a cane, the last one was a man with messy black hair who appeared to be asleep standing up. "Sam, Ichi, Makura, meet the Axe-Head detectives, they're going to help us protect the artifacts.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa…" Devon held out his hands. "This is your security staff? You have a blind guy, a midget, and a narcoleptic protecting the museum and you're wondering how you got robbed!?"

"That's my cookie damnit!" Makura snapped awake, yawning loudly. "What'd I miss?"

"Miss Robin, are you sure it's alright to let someone of… his kind in?" Ichi nodded to Herman.

"Yeah, ain't that kinda the point of what we're trying to prevent sweet cheeks?" Sam also gave a glare to the Fish-man.

__

'Great, now even the blind are discriminating me because of how I look…'

Herman grumbled a bit to himself before Robin held up her hands.

"I assure you, these people are professionals, they aren't here to steal anything. They're not well known but from what I've read they're pretty good."

"Yeah, Herman's one of us, we don't go anywhere without the big guy." Axe nodded. "If he don't come in, we don't come in…"

Sam and Ichi both sighed and led the way along with Robin into the exhibit in question. The group was amazed at what they saw. It was a huge room dedicated to the history of the sea. There were tanks all over the room filled with all kinds of ocean life, from clams to smaller Sea Kings to angelfish, including evolutionary charts of how different sea animals came to be what they are. There were also smaller tanks for petting manta rays and smaller animals and test stations and printouts to show the sedimentary content within the oceans as well as many other exhibits of the life in the ocean and things that came from it.

"Wow…" Several of the group uttered in unison.

"This place is awesome!" Dusty exclaimed, looking around and pressing her face against one of the tanks. "It's a fishie! Hi fishie!" She waved at one of the angelfish, which quickly swam away. "Look! He's waving at me with his tail!"

"Uh… Dusty? That's called swimming…"

Kirsty let out a whistle. "This place almost makes me wish I could swim…"

Robin led them all away from the tanks and pointed them in the direction of two glass cases, one case was empty, cut into by what looked like very sharp knives. The other held a large pearl-shaped green orb. The curator turned to the detectives and pointed to the green pearl. "Have you all heard of the substance called Kairoseki, or seastone?"

"That's the stuff that cancels out the power of Devil Fruits, right?" Niri answered.

Robin nodded slowly. "That's correct. It is also very rare and a treasure of the sea, leading us to have a small collection of it here, especially since certain pieces of ancient jewelry used Kairoseki as ornaments. By studying these pieces, we can learn more about the sea and about ancient cultures."

"However, seastone is also very valuable, and is the target of thieves, as we have seen in the past few weeks." Ichi growled, still keeping his sightless eyes on Herman.

"What's his problem?" Azu crossed his arms and nodded to Ichi.

"He's a bit upset about the recent theft we've had." Robin gestured to the case that was cut open. "This contained an ancient necklace with a seastone ornament, we believe it was stolen by a group of Fish-Men, but we don't have any proof of such a claim."

"Fish-men?" Herman raised an eyestalk. "Why do you suspect the fish-men?"

Robin gestured to the other green pearl again. "Well, we believe they were after this treasure instead, and simply got them confused because of the size and confusion during the robbery. We've hired you to catch whoever stole the necklace before they have a chance to steal the greater treasure."

"What is that one?" Kirsty raised an eyebrow to the curator.

The raven-haired woman took a deep breath before continuing. "This is a sediment that has a close relation to Kairoseki, and for our purposes, we shall call it Kairoseki II. Kairoseki II has the same effect of canceling out Devil Fruit abilities, but has an added effect on the Fish-Man race. It uses all the elements of the sea to simulate the power a Fish-man has when submerged underwater."

"And since Fish-men are ten times stronger under water then they are on land, this is a major problem if a mob of them got their hands on it." Sam added, giving a disapproving nod to Herman, who was looking fairly ticked by this point.

"Why haven't I heard of this Kairoseki II before?" Chizuru took a long look at the green pearl of the sediment.

"It's much rarer than it's seastone brother, it is believed that there is only ten pounds of it in the whole world, two of which is sitting in front of you." Robin answered.

"So, with your less than capable staff and this huge treasure, it's practically shouting 'Fish-men, come steal me!' That's why you want us here." Devon crossed his arms and also stared at the orb.

"Precisely."

"HEY! I think he insulted us!" Makura snapped awake and glared at Devon.

"You're so fricken slow!" Ichi and Sam facefaulted.

Before the group could argue any further, the lights suddenly went out, making the exhibit pitch black.

"Oh shit!"

"Where is everyone?"

"Who's hand is on my ass?!"

"That was there before the lights went out…"

__

SLAP!

The lights suddenly came back on and everyone looked around, noticing two things were missing. One was the pearl of Kairoseki II, and the other was Axe!

"Hey guys. I found our culprit." Axe smirked as he held a large blue figure's hands behind it's own back, walking back into the exhibit from the outside. Herman's eyestalks went wide when he saw who it was. "ARLONG!"

"I knew that red guy had some connection to his gang!" Sam Rico pointed to Herman. "Arrest him too!"

"Shut it shorty." Kirsty gave him a swift kick in the groin, sending him to the floor. "Herman's with us and fights for justice, that's all that matters."

"Sha ha ha ha ha… I didn't do anything wrong, you got the wrong guy!" Arlong protested, giving a small evil grin when he saw Herman.

"A Fish-man just happens to be running from the scene of a crime where Fish-men are the prime suspects after the lights go out and a treasure is stolen… yeah I'll believe that when leprechauns fly out of my butt." Axe held Arlong with all his strength, determined not to let him go.

"You hear this guy Herman? He's totally racist, he thinks I did it just because I'm a Fish-man!" Arlong growled, struggling against Axe. "I was running because I was trying to figure out what shut the lights off and get out of here because I knew some racist bastard would blame me for this, you humans are always blaming us for everything!"

__

'You're one to be calling someone racist, Arlong… you practically defined the term Fish-man supremacist.'

Herman thought and sighed. "He does have a point though Axe, we can't prosecute him without more evidence, did you find the Kairoseki II pearl?" 

"Nope, I frisked him and everything, couldn't find it anywhere…"

"Should have known the Fish-man would stick up for his kind… he's probably in on it…" Sam mumbled, earning another kick from Kirsty.

Herman growled and ignored the midget's racism, putting his claw to his mouth in thought. _'It's obvious Arlong is the culprit though, who else could it be? I know who did it… I just have to prove it!'_

"You've got no evidence, so let me go!" Arlong shouted, struggling in Axe's grasp. "It's bad enough people blame me for this gang of Fish-men on the streets, but I don't need people framing me for a robbery, bastards!"

Herman took a deep breath and sighed, looking around. _'If I could find that pearl, we can nail him….' _He looked at the case where the Kairoseki II pearl had been, it had a very fine cut circle into it just like the last one, however this time it appeared that some of the glass cracked while the culprit was taking the pearl out. "Arlong, open your mouth please…_" _

"What? You actually think I did it Herman? Don't tell me you're on the side of these humans…" Arlong protested but opened his mouth as the detective instructed, having no other choice in his position.

Herman picked up the glass disk that had been cut away from the case, holding it up to Arlong's teeth and nodding. "Arlong… you stole the Kairoseki II! No one can escape the One Truth!" He stared hard at his former boss.

"What? Have you lost your mind Herman!?" Arlong gaped and looked at him.

"As they say, the proof is in the pudding, well in the case, the glass. He pointed to the two cuts in the two cases. These cuts are clean and the perfect shape of a Fish-man's mouth, however you can tell Arlong specifically has done it because of these…" Herman pointed to the cracks in the hole of the Kairoseki II case. "These cracks are from Arlong shedding his teeth, as he often does. But they suggest that Arlong was not used to the sharpness of his new teeth and broke the glass more than he intended when he first punctured the Kairoseki II case, not bothering to smooth it out because of his limited time. Because no other Fish-man in the area has this exact mouth size and sheds it's teeth like a Sawshark Fish-man, so they wouldn't have produced such cracks."

"Whoot! Way to go Herman!" Dusty cheered, "Take that Ar-long!" She pulled down on her eye and made a face, sticking her tongue out at the fish-man.

"So… where's the Kairoseki II?" Devon question, looking back at Arlong.

Arlong grinned. "Sha… Sha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!" He started with a slow laugh before throwing his head back in a roar of laughter. "You've caught me Herman… something only a Fish-man could do… but you'll never find the treasure, I've hidden it in a place where none of your puny human friends could take it!"

"Damn, just tell us where it is already!" Azu growled.

Herman sighed and thought for a moment. _'To figure this one out, I'm going to need to think like him… he would keep it somewhere safe, but somewhere close enough where he could still gloat over it in secret, that ego of his will be his downfall…' _Herman looked around the room. _'Somewhere close… somewhere where only a Fish-Man could find it…' _His eyestalks snapped open. "I've got it!" He pointed to the tank of water behind them. "It's inside the clam's mouth, where along a creature of the sea would be able to find it and crack it open!" He pointed to the bivalve in the tank, whose mouth was clamped shut. "You dried off before Axe could catch you, but your arrogance in telling me it was only where a Fish-Man could get it serves as your defeat!"

Everyone watched as Herman dove into the fish tank and nimbly swam down to the bottom, opening the clam gently and retrieving the green orb. "You're finished Arlong!" Herman held the Kairoseki II in his hands while Arlong glared up at him.

"Not quite!" Arlong rammed his saw-like nose quickly into Herman, knocking the Kairoseki II out of his hands and sending the pearl clattering across the floor and Herman into a wall, a small bleeding hole in his chest. During the confusion, he broke out of Axe's grip and grabbed the orb before anyone could react.

"Sha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!" He held the seastone triumphantly. "I finally have it! This will multiply my power tenfold and give the Arlong gang the power to crush all the non-Fish-men of the world!"

"Not if I stop you!" Axe threw his fist hard at Arlong , who met it with his own fist, quickly sliding the Kairoseki II orb into his mouth, grinning with his dangerously sharp teeth as he swallowed it whole, making it a part of his body to reap the effects forever. Surprisingly, Axe's fist hit dead on, but was shown to actually be pushed back slightly by Arlong's own, sending the young detective sliding across the floor a few feet.

"Sha ha ha! I'm invincible now!" Arlong moved across the floor with surprising speed, appearing right next to Kirsty, Sam, Austin, and Pingu with a speed that rivaled Soru. "Shark on darts!" He spun quickly, ripping into the four people and sending them flying across the room, each with fair sized gashes in them. "You may have caught me, but try to stop me!" He laughed, jumping from the floor to a stellar height and into the water tank, scooping up some water in his hands.

"Take this, bastard!" Niri held up her father's pistol and unloaded a few bullets on the Sawshark fish-man.

"Not good enough!" Arlong threw the droplets of water and turned them as hard as bullets, deflecting Niri's own bullets and pushing a few into her with the same force, sending her flying into one of the empty cases. "Sha ha ha! None of you puny humans can hope to defeat me, especially not now!"

"How about we give it a shot!?" Devon and DJ both appeared before Arlong on top of the tank, swinging their swords at him, only to have all three blades be stopped in an instant by Arlong's saw nose.

"Shark on Tooth!" Arlong spun again, making a larger circle this time and opening his mouth to bite the swordsmen, whom he threw bleeding into the water. _'Damn… caught me… offguard…' _They both thought as they sank.

After disposing with the others, matching Azu's boxing with an improved version of his 'Tooth Gum' attack, ripping into him and tossing Ichi, Makura, Robin and Dusty aside with his immense strength, he turned on Axe, again, his blood stained teeth grinning in malice. "You're the last one… coordinator… Do you really think you can beat me when I'm ten times as strong as normal?"

"Hmph, You've gotten lucky so far, that's all, you caught them offguard because you look like such a wimp." Axe taunted and ran a thumb across his own cheek, getting into a fighting stance. "You won't be so lucky with me, I know every single person in my team is stronger than you, and they don't need a boost from some stupid stone to prove it!" Axe rushed Arlong, activating Soru and bouncing along the walls with Geppou to match and move past Arlong's increased speed. "Kachi Kachi no Bazooka!" He rammed his stone fist into Arlong's jaw, shattering the Sawshark's teeth, grinning at his victory. "Is that all ya got? Big bad Fish-man…?"

Arlong growled and pulled out his shattered teeth, another pair growing in their place instantly. "I'll show you the difference between us…" His eyes turned red as he unleashed the rage of the Fish-man race, his veins popping out in his muscles from the power boost on top of the Kairoseki II effects. "It's our species! Die Human! Shark on Tooth!" He spun, opening his mouth again, ready to bite into Axe with teeth that could break nearly anything at this point.

"Tekkai!" Axe shouted, turning his body to stone at the same time as activating his defensive Rokushiki. Arlong's teeth dug into the stone easily, and ripped into Axe's flesh, but were somewhat stopped by the hardness of his Tekkai, leaving a much more shallow, but still very painful wound in the coordinator's chest.

"Sha ha ha ha ha!" Arlong laughed as he listened to Axe's scream. "I've beaten you, lay down like a good little human and I'll let you live as my pet!" He kicked Axe in the gut and propped his webbed foot on him as he fell to the ground. The Fish-man monster repeatedly kicked the coordinator, his eyes still red with rage.

Axe grabbed the giant stone and diamond axe off his back and swung it hard at Arlong's leg while still on the ground, panting loudly. The Fish-man dodged but was forced to step away from his place torturing the detective leader. "Rankyaku!" Axe kicked the air, leaving a trail of blue where he kicked, which Arlong sidestepped easily.

"Give it up human, I'm going to win!" He watched as the Rankyaku arc went into the wall behind him.

"I don't give up easily…" He panted, as most of my team can tell you, my head is full of rocks."

"Bad joke…" Azu groaned and rolled over from his place on the floor.

"Let's see who's head is harder!" Axe used Geppou to jump into the air, then closed his eyes and focused for a final attack. "Tekkai… COMETES!" He pushed back to the ground quickly, heading straight for Arlong, who jumped after him, plowing the Fish-man right into the stomach, leaving a large bruise and spilling some of his blood before both fighters clattered to the ground, worn out.

Axe felt like he was going to pass out, but he looked over to Arlong, who was holding his gut in one hand, and his mouth in the other, screaming and gurgling like he was about to vomit.

"Dude, is he going to barf?" Dusty winced and stood up, beginning to help the others as they recovered from their injuries as well.

Arlong let out a loud scream as something round and green came flying from his mouth, but it wasn't puke, it was the orb of Kairoseki II! "The seastone!" Arlong cried as the pearl went flying into the air.

"That is the first time I've ever been happy to see a Fish-man puke…" Devon smirked as he and DJ climbed out of the tank of water, virtually unharmed aside from a few painful, but non-life-threatening cuts.

Everyone watched as the orb came rolling to a stop, right by Herman's feet. The lobster Fish-man was now standing, only slightly harmed from Arlong's attack. "I don't understand! I thought I killed you all!" Arlong wailed, standing up with one of his arms hanging at his side, panting from his battle with Axe.

The coordinator grinned as he sat up, unable to stand but still full of energy. "I guess we're not as weak as you thought, Arlong."

The Sawshark Fish-man growled as he turned to Herman. "Herman! Give me back the Kairoseki II! You can't really be on the side of these humans who mock and ridicule you, you wouldn't choose them over your own people, would you?!" He shot a glare around the room, especially to Sam and Ichi, who were also standing after the assault, stopping when his eyes met Herman.

Herman closed his eyes, picked up the Kairoseki II and began walking over to Arlong. "Big guy, don't!" Sam protested and Ichi growled.

Herman's eyestalks narrowed at the two, giving an evil glare that shut them up on sight. He extended the claw with the pearl to Arlong, smiling slightly. "I've made the right choice…"

"Yes you have Herman…" Arlong laughed triumphantly. "It's natural for you to want to be with your own people than in the world of humans, all alone." He reached for the orb, only to feel it go out of his reach, a fist connecting with his face and shattering his teeth again as Herman punched him through a wall into the next room thanks to the power of the Kairoseki II, which now worked it's tenfold benefit on Herman.

"I am never alone… I have friends now who protect me, as I protect them! They are my people Arlong! You and I may have similar genes, but we're nothing alike inside! These people that surround me, they believe in peace and protection, and in justice and dreams as I do, true friendship, that's something you could never understand! ARAGOSTA BATTUTA!" Herman sped towards his former leader, ramming a fist in his gut before he could even fully stand up, sending him flying through the air. Before Arlong landed, Herman curled into a ball and sped along underneath him. "Aragosta Gyorai!" He pushed off the ground and rammed into Arlong, sending him flying through the ceiling and a few upper floors before he came crashing down to the floor, bleeding profusely with many broken bones, but still very alive and in a lot of pain.

"Y-You've won… finish me!" Arlong mumbled through his now toothless lips, since his teeth had failed to grow back right away because of the onslaught. "I-It's what I would do…"

Herman scoffed and tossed the Kairoseki II to Robin, who was still in the other room. "Don't you get it yet Arlong? I'm not you, I'm not cold-blooded like you." He turned and began to walk away from the defeated Fish-man. "I'm not the bad guy… I won't kill in cold blood like you would, jail will be good enough for you."

Arlong groaned and before he could utter a reply, fell unconscious.

Makura sat up in a pile of debris, yawning softly. "Hey, what happened here, did I miss something fun?"

"YOU WERE ASLEEP THE WHOLE TIME!?"

--

"I can't thank you enough for helping to protect the Kairoseki II, and the price of this treasure is a little more than the damages you caused in the fight, so it's well worth it." Robin gave a small smirk as she looked at the group of roughed-up, but still very healthy detectives.

Axe smiled while leaning on Niri for support, still worn out from the fight. "No problem, it's what we're paid for."

"Yosh! It's the least we could do for a lady who…" DJ was cut off by the sound of Dusty clearing her throat loudly. "… is very pretty but is not as much so as Dusty-chan."

Robin gave a small giggle as the rest of the team groaned. "Unfortunately we lost the seastone necklace that was stolen before the Kairoseki II. Arlong confessed to stealing it, but he said he sold it to a man in a white top hat and cape in exchange for helping them kidnap someone named Kaya."

"A white top hat and cape!?" DJ's eyes widened quickly. "The Kaitou Kid! So that's why he was working with Hatchan to begin with…"

"I wonder why Kaitou would go to such lengths for normal seastone, it couldn't be to sell it or else he would have wanted to wait and get a piece of the Kairoseki II…" Niri pondered for a moment.

"Oh well, that's all in the past, the only thing we can do is focus on the next case, right Herman?" Axe grinned up to the large Fish-man.

Herman looked out the window to the sun shining brightly over the town, a new start for all it shone on. "Yeah, the next case…" He grinned broadly. _'The line between good and evil may not always be clear, but at least I have friends that can help guide me through it and help me decide when I can't on my own. And as long as they're here, no matter who has a grudge against me or Fish-men, I know I am never alone…' _

Ichi and Sam walked over to Herman, the former giving a polite bow. "I misjudged you Fish-man, please forgive me…" He nudged Sam with his cane, who grumbled and gave a small bow as well.

"I'm sorry too…" He mumbled reluctantly.

"It's Herman, and really, it's no problem." He waved his hands in front of his face and smiled warmly.

Sam got a lecherous grin on his face. "So… Herman, think you can set me up with one of those hottie teammates of yours?" He made hands like he was pinching the air.

"What was that… pervert?" Niri, Kirsty, and Dusty cracked their knuckles from their place standing behind him.

"Well… here it comes…" The midget held his hands in front of his face. "Not the face, not the face!"

__

WHAM!

--

Meanwhile, Inspector Smoker sat at his desk in the police headquarters, filing through his paperwork in his office and smoking his trademark two cigars. He stood up and stretched grumpily, heading down the hall when he saw a figure dressed in white, simply standing at the end of the hall.

"Hey, you!" He put a hand on the handle of his jutte and walked towards the figure. "Only authorities are allowed back here, you need to leave now or else I'll be forced to make you!"

The figure disappeared, only to reappear behind Smoker. "Well, well… if it's isn't my old friend, Inspector Smoker. I was hoping to run into you here." The figure smirked, it was wearing a white hooded robe with the hood up so Smoker couldn't see his face, only the bottom half of his head was showing through his clothing.

"Co…" Smoker was cut off as the figure, now confirmed to be male, put a hand on his shoulder.

"Ah, ah, no names Smokey. Besides… I have a different name now."

"H-…" Smoker was cut off again as the man cleared his throat and wagged his finger.

"Now, now Smoker-kun. You know if you call for help all you'll end up with is a bunch of dead bodies, you know I'm even stronger than you are." He made a 'tsk' sound.

The figure disappeared again in a blur, appearing in front of Smoker with incredible speed so the back of his robe was now visible to Smoker. The man was a little taller than average, but his robe had very distinctive golden letters on the back. 'El mano del dios castiga todos' **(1)** On either side of the phrase were white, feathered angelic wings.

"W-What the hell are you doing here?" Smoker growled, blowing a large puff of smoke out of his cigars.

"Lord Scythes has made his move in this town and began Operation Rapture." The figure turned around and grinned. "I'm simply here to warn you that the police will have a part in this plan, what that part is will soon be up to you, choose wisely Smoker-kun…." He walked down the hall again, the sandals on his feet making a small clapping noise as he sung a haunting melody.

"Careful what you do, for God is watching your every move…"

The man disappeared one more time, his laughter echoing through the halls. "Ma ha ha ha ha ha…"

Smoker's eyes widened as he fell down and leaned his back against the wall in a sitting position, the adrenaline of the situation wearing off. "Why up to me… Scythes? What the hell is he doing here… We're all in a shitload of trouble…"

--

**"The hand of God punishes all" in Spanish if I'm correct**

**Whoo, well this one was a fun one to write for me, not only because I'm a big fanboy of Nico Robin, but also because of all the emotion with Herman and suspense with the mystery man and Smoker. Sorry if the mystery wasn't that hard to solve, but I tried to make up for it with action.**

**Next time on One Truth:**

**Axe: Now that Arlong's gang has crumbled… why does it seem more trouble is starting up than before?**

**Kaku: Well, you see there's a problem with some of my animals…**

**Devon: Let me get this straight… we have a witness to the crime… but the only problem is… he can't talk…**

**The Giraffe Whisperer**

**Pingu: Honk!**

**Next Detective Hint: Leaves**


	5. The Giraffe Whisperer

****

Don't own One Piece or Detective Conan

Case Five: The Giraffe Whisperer

The members of the Axe-Head detective agency sat around the dining room table for a meeting. There were parts of the newspapers from the past few days strewn across the long rectangular table for everyone to see.

"What the heck is with this?" Axe said, pointing to the papers. "We took down Arlong's gang, one of the larger gangs in town, and it seems like even more criminals are coming out of the woodwork instead of the crime level going down. I mean look at this stuff…" He picked up a few of the papers. "Robberies, occult killings, vampire sitting's, something about a bear and a bunny… What is this crap!?" He threw the papers back into the center of the table.

"Well, it's basic theory." Chizuru mumbled, she was the only one not sitting at the table with everyone else, she was sitting by a smaller table with a chessboard on top of it, fiddling with a piece every now and then while thinking about the next move. "When you take out a big fish, there's always a bunch of minnows waiting to feed off of it and fill the vacuum." She opened a letter and moved another chess piece.

"What the heck are you doing Chiz?" Azu sat up and stared at the board, a confused look on his face.

"Playing chess by mail, it's quite interesting actually." She moved her piece in contrast to the other piece she moved before, writing down the move and sealing it into an envelope for later.

"Focus people!" Axe called their attention back to the situation at hand. "What are we going to do about all this?"

"I don't see why we have to do anything." Niri leaned back in her chair. "We're private eyes, not vigilantes, so until someone hires us, we don't gotta do squat. Besides, with all these new crimes, that means more new money for us." She gave a big grin.

"I guess so… but still it doesn't feel right just sitting here while all this is going on outside…" Herman argued.

"Don't worry big guy." Kirsty patted him on the back. "I'm sure if anyone's in serious trouble, they'll get a hold of us."

Axe sighed and sat back down in his chair, shaking his head. "I sure hope that's the case…"

--

Later that day, the group of detectives got called to a new case at the local zoo. As they walked amongst the cages, looking for the zookeeper who hired them, Dusty bounced around, peeking in every cage they passed. "Whoohoo! I love the zoo!" She grinned broadly. "Look, a monkey!"

"Reminds you of home, eh kit?" Devon smirked smugly. "Being raised by wolves and all…"

The fox girl quickly zipped in front of him, getting right in his face. "If anyone here was raised by wolves, it would be you Mr. Sunshine." She poked him in the chest a few times.

Kirsty and Chizuru giggled while watching the two fight, looking around as they approached the tanks full of water and sea animals. "Reminds you of the museum, eh Chizzy?" The doctor smiled warmly.

"Yeah." She nodded and adjusted her hat to keep the sun out of her eyes. "I wonder what kind of crime could be committed here…"

"Hey, you guys looking for something?" A female voice called out. The group looked around, but saw no one in sight.

"What the- am I that drunk that I'm hearing things?" Azu scratched his head lightly.

"Probably, but someone was calling us too…" Devon continued to look back and forth for the source.

"Up here!" The woman called, causing the group of detectives to look up, seeing a young girl poke her head out of the top of one of the tanks. "Hang on! I'll come down there!" She dove down to the bottom of the tank and resurfaced in a small wading pool near the group. "Sorry about that, how can I help you?" As she pulled herself out of the water and onto the stones surrounding the pool, the Axe-Heads saw that the girl had no legs, only a long, fish-like tail. She was wearing a T-shirt with a star on it and carrying a backpack, but no one really paid much attention to that, considering her tail.

Kirsty pointed, blinking in shock. "Y-you're a…"

"A mermaid! How romantic!" DJ's eyes instantly lit up like hearts as he rushed to the front of the group, giving a sweeping bow before the young woman. "It's a pleasure to meet you mermaid-san, DJ Macleod at your service! How may we be of help to you?"

"Oi, stop getting in the way of business." Niri pushed him aside, into the wading pool the mermaid was swimming in. Niri ignored her fallen comrade and kept her eyes on the mermaid woman. "We're the Axe-Head detective agency, we were told there was a crime for us to investigate?"

"Oh, you want to talk to Kaku-chin." The mermaid nodded. "My name's Camie, I'm a Kissing Gourami mermaid, I'm just an intern here, I take care of all the marine animals. But this is just a part-time job, my real job is selling takoyaki." She pulled some fliers seemingly out of nowhere and handed them to the detectives. "You should try it sometime!"

"I wonder what Kissing Gourami mermaids do…" Azu snickered.

"I bet they hug!" DJ grinned, pulling his half-soaked form out of the pool.

"Thanks, sounds awesome." Axe smiled and took the fliers, tucking them away somewhere safe. "Now where can we find this… Kaku?"

"Oi, how about right behind you sonny?"

Axe nearly jumped out of his skin as he yelped and turned around. "Crap! Why does everyone always sneak up on me! I'm gonna have a heart attack one of these days…" He grumbled. He looked at the man in an orange jacket and a white hat, with a huge box-shaped nose, even his face looked like a box.

"Kaku-chin! These guys wanted to have a talk with you." Camie smiled warmly.

"Yeah, I noticed, thanks dear." Kaku raised a hand and laughed. "You guys the detectives I called for?"

"That'd be us!" Niri grinned. "The Axe-Head Detectives can solve any crime… for the right prize of course." The treasurer quickly took on a look of avarice.

"You guys look like a bunch of whippersnappers, you sure you can handle this?" The zookeeper tilted his baseball cap upward.

"Of course we can! We caught the pussy bandit didn't we?"

"Pussy CAT bandit, pussy bandit sounds like a strip club…"

"I've been to that strip club…"

"SHUT UP AZU!"

Kirsty pushed the group of her arguing teammates aside, looking directly at Kaku. "Excuse me sir, but how old are you?"

"Why I'm Twenty-three, young one, why?"

"Cause you talk like an old fart!" Axe blurted out a little more loudly than he intended.

Herman cleared his throat, trying to act as a voice of reason amongst all this lovey, perverted, humorous, and confused hysteria. "What did you bring us here for, Mr. Kaku?"

Kaku nodded and began walking towards the other side of the zoo. "I seem to be having a problem with some of my animals… follow me."

Kaku lead them to an empty cage and pointed inside. "See?"

"See what? Are these some kind of invisible otters or something?" Dusty blinked, rubbing her eyes.

"The problem is they're not here…" Kaku adjusted his cap.

"WHY COULDN'T YOU JUST SAY THAT!?" The detectives facefaulted.

"Well, it's deeper than that, see… follow me again please." Kaku lead them to another open area with a fence, guarded by a rather odd green-haired gentleman who appeared to be fast asleep. "Oi, Zoro, get up, I'm not paying you to fall asleep and not guard a giraffe pen." Kaku nudged him with his foot lightly.

The green-haired man snorted, sitting up abruptly. "Huh? What? Morning already?"

"This is my giraffe, Gir." He pointed.

"This Marimo?" Azu blinked.

"Behind me, moron!" Zoro facefaulted and stepped aside, revealing a large orange and yellow spotted creature with a long neck.

"You see, the empty cage we passed earlier belongs to Gir's mate, Raffe." Kaku explained. "Raffe was stolen a few days ago and now Gir is terribly upset. I love my Giraffes more than any other animal in my zoo, and it kills me to see them in such pain…"

"Awww, that's so sweet…" Kirsty, Niri, and Dusty said together.

"What's the big deal? They're just animals…" Devon scoffed.

"Be more sensitive, baka!" DJ slapped him in the back of the head, leading to a short scuffle between the two, which left them with lumps on both of their heads courtesy of the women.

"You see kids, when Raffe was taken, there wasn't a single sign of anything majorly disturbed within the grounds, and I have no idea who might've taken her or where she might be, there's been no ransom note or anything either."

__

'No ransom?

' Axe thought to himself.

_'That's really strange, something odder than normal is going on here…' _

"Alright! I have a plan!" Niri grinned. "I propose a stakeout, whoever took Raffe has gotta come back for Gir eventually, and since we're not the best known detective agency around, we can pretend we were never here to keep sucipsion down so the thieves can come out."

"That's probably our best bet." DJ nodded. "We don't have enough evidence as it is, so we'll have to wait for some more to show itself."

Axe nodded in agreement. "Alright, I only have one, seemingly cliched thing to say, let's split up gang!"

--

"WHAT THE HELL!?" Devon screamed, everyone stirred from their places of slumber at the starlit zoo. "How the hell did we all fall asleep!?"

"And what's worse, Gir's gone!" Dusty pointed to the Giraffe pen.

Everyone looked up startled, surprised that they had fallen asleep so soon. "What the hell? Someone must have used a sleeping dial on us! Sleeping dials exist, right?"

"No"

"Oh, then we must've just fallen asleep…" Azu sweatdropped.

Everyone looked to see Pingu was still awake, flapping and honking up a storm. "What's the deal with the bird?" Dusty blinked.

"What is it Pingu-kun? Do you know who took Gir?" Niri watched as Pingu nodded rapidly, flapping and honking in an incoherent manner.

"What the heck? Kit, see if you can translate…" Devon watched the bird with an eyebrow raised.

"Hello? Bird? Dog? It doesn't exactly transfer over into the same family…" The fox girl huffed.

"Something's not right here…" Niri mumbled. "We couldn't have all just fallen asleep at the same time, whoever stole those giraffes must have also put us to sleep! It could've been anyone though, all the zoo workers are still here, old square nose, the marimo gatekeeper, and even that crazy mermaid, there's no way we can know what happened unless we know what Pingu saw!"

"So Let me get this straight… we have a witness to the crime, but the only problem is… he can't talk…" Devon groaned.

"We can fix that…" DJ grinned, looking from Pingu to the gates of the zoo. "Gather everyone up, I'll be back in a sec."

--

****

62.5 secs later

The detectives gathered Pingu, Camie (who was in a small water tub), Kaku, and Zoro together as DJ came running back in a blur, someone in his arms. He set the dark-skinned blonde woman down. "So, think you can help us Kagura-sama? You gotta have something to make animals talk."

"Since when did Kagura become our Q?" Kirsty blinked.

"Q?" Dusty raised an eyebrow.

"You know, the person from comic books that gives the detectives or secret agents all the gadgets they need, just an observation." She shrugged.

"Sure, I think I got what you're looking for…" Kagura what looked like a red bubble-gum piece from her belt, holding it in front of Pingu. "I was working on this for Zoan Devil Fruit users, it's a humanoid-animal interspecies communicator."

"Uh… in English please?" Dusty waved her arms.

"You pop this in an animal's mouth, and they can talk." The scientist smiled. "I call it a voice ball."

"Cool, wonder what it does to humans." The fox girl grinned.

"It's probably poisonous, but if you'd like to try by all means go ahead." Kagura popped the ball into Pingu's beak and waited a few minutes.

"Did it work?" Everyone gasped as they watched their bird friend ask the question instead of his normal honking. "Awesome! It did!" He walked over to Dusty. "I have just one thing to say to you…" He kicked her in the shin. "Screw you! You and that lovestruck swordsman can bite my wet flippery ass! I do not like playing dress-up and I'm tired of taking the rap for you when you steal fish at night!"

"Wow, for a bird he sure has a mouth on him…" Herman put his claw to his mouth in shock.

"Yeah! Attaboy Pingu!" Niri crossed her arms and raised her fist, laughing in approval.

DJ sighed, holding back an enraged Dusty. "Insults aside, we really need to know what happened when we all fell asleep Pingu, I doubt we have much time."

"The ball works for thirty minutes, it's slightly more powerful than a rumble ball, but I don't know how repeated use works with it, so make this count." Kagura checked he watch.

"Oh yeah, the Giraffe did it…" Pingu waved a flipper at them. "There, case solved."

"What!? You expect us to believe the giraffe stole the giraffe?" Devon growled at the now verbal bird.

"Yeah, before you guys fell asleep, I saw him make a signal neck movement for that thing." He pointed to a fish in the tank.

Camie gasped. "That's a sleeping puffer! No wonder you guys fell asleep, when that makes a certain sound, it can put any people within earshot to sleep before they even hear the tone."

"So… the giraffe put us to sleep? Why would it do that?" Axe rubbed his chin in thought.

"Probably so the two can go fuck in private, you know how embarrassing it is to have to do that in a cage in front of everyone? No, I suppose you humans wouldn't." Pingu hmphed and crossed his flippers.

"Wait… you mean they weren't playing leapfrog?" Kaku gasped. "My poor giraffes!"

"So, you think Gir went wherever Raffe was taken?" Kirsty blinked, ignoring the perverted comments.

"Yeah, the whole time Gir was in that cage, he was moaning and groaning 'where's Raffe?' 'I need my Raffe' 'I have to get to her before it happens…'." The penguin looked up at her.

"Before what happens exactly?" Kirsty questioned.

"Not sure, I just know he was really bent on getting to Raffe and made sure you all were asleep so he could escape quietly." Pingu shrugged.

"Awww, how sweet, Gir snuck away to find his mate, do you have any idea where they could be Pingu-kun?" Niri sniffed softly, touched by the events.

"I have an idea, if my hunch is right, it shouldn't be hard to find them, follow me!"

--

The verbal penguin led the detectives and zoo workers, except Camie, who was watching the zoo, to a clearing that had a decent sized cave at its edge. Sure enough, Gir was outside the cave. "Ha! I was right! Eat that you so-called detectives, I'm smarter than all ya!" He gave a large beaked grin.

"I liked it better when he honked…" Azu growled.

Gir walked slowly up to the detectives and made a few motions with his neck. Pingu nodded and looked to the detectives. "Guys, we have to get into that cave, Raffe's in there."

"That's great news!" Kaku smiled happily.

"…And she's about to go into labor…"

"WHAT!?" Axe picked a fainted Kaku up off the ground and stared at the talking penguin.

"Would I make this up? I had a feeling, why would Gir need to see Raffe so badly? Sure he loves her and anything, but the true reason she ran away was to have her babies in a place that was close to nature instead of a caged zoo. And this is the only spot around that would be perfect to give birth in private."

"Well, Kirsty, get to work…"

"With what?"

"Deliver the giraffe."

"I'm a doctor! Not a freaken vet!"

"Still, you're the only one who has any idea on how to give birth to something, so we gotta trust you, we'll help as much as we can. Kirsty, you're our only hope here."

--

__

Inside the cave

"Get that water over here, tear up those sheets, make sure everything's sterile! She's going into labor, everyone clear the way!" Kirsty shouted orders as they prepared for the birth of the baby giraffe

"It's crowning… necking… whatever!" Kirsty closed her eyes and tried to pull the giraffe out with her gloved hands while everyone else looked on in wonder (or disgust in some cases). Gir nudged Raffe lightly with his neck as she continued her work with Kirsty to bring life into the world.

"Dude…"

"I know…"

"Dude…"

"I know…"

"Dude…"

"I freaken know already!"

After a short time of screaming, noises, pulling, and weird giraffe labor, the baby giraffe laid beside its mother and father, standing wobbly and falling down again shortly after. Kirsty sighed and snapped her gloves off. "That has got to be the oddest thing I have ever seen as a doctor, I hope I never have to give birth to another baby giraffe."

"It's so wonderful though, seeing it like this, really makes you think."

"Yeah, any ideas for names?" Azu looked from the baby giraffe to Kaku.

"Well, I think it's only fair to let the parents decide." The zookeeper nodded to Pingu, who asked the two animals what they wanted to name it.

"Oh my god…" Pingu covered his peak in his flippers and let out a few excited honks. (The ball was starting to wear off by now)

"What? What did they say?" Axe looked at the penguin.

"They said they wanted to name the baby… Penguin." He grinned.

"Awww, that's sweet, and fitting, if it weren't for you, we wouldn't be here to see this and help deliver the baby.

"Looks like my zoo family has another member…. Eh, Penguin?" Kaku smiled warmly.

Pingu smiled, knowing his time was running short. "You guys really need to learn how to speak penguin, so I can help out like this more often." A few of his words were gargled by honks. "Oh, and by the way…" He ran over to Azu, jumped and punched him in the groin. "That's for freakin tying me up in balloons and letting me float into the sky! Jerk…"

"Why you…!" The drunkard ran over to the penguin, only to have the bird cling to Niri's leg.

"Save me Niri-chan!" He whined cutely.

__

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Azu opened his eyes as three of his dreads fell off his head where bullets had whizzed by. "You know what I like about penguins… THEY DON'T TALK!"

"One more thing, how did the giraffes escape from the zoo without disturbing anything?" Kaku questioned.

"Oh yeah, that, Raffe says the Marimo gatekeeper fell asleep and left the gate open." Pingu tapped a flipper to his cheek.

Everyone glared at Zoro. "You idiot!"

Pingu laughed and slid down Niri's leg. "Thanks guys… it's been… fun." His voice faded out and became a series of honks once again.

"Well, that was a successful experiment, maybe if I can get the bugs worked out, I can make one that lasts longer." Kagura chuckled.

"Please do!" Kirsty, Niri and Dusty giggled.

"Please… don't…" Axe, Devon, DJ, and Azu (who was still picking up his discarded dreads) all muttered in unison while Herman, Chizuru and Austin giggled at their teammates.

--

Back at the zoo, Gir, Raffe, and Penguin were all happily placed in a more natural pen that had much more room and more privacy than the ones they were in before. Kaku was happier than ever to have his giraffes back, and even have one more than he started with. "Thank you guys so much, I'll make sure to keep on Zoro more to stay awake so this won't happen again, and I'll make sure to keep an eye on what my animals are trying to tell me." He chuckled.

"No problem, glad to see you're happy, another case solved, blahblahblah, where's our money?" Niri grinned.

"Oh, yes, the payment." Kaku reached into his pocket. "I'm sorry, I can't really afford to give you much money, but I will give what I can, plus a special gift from me."

"Special gift?" The detectives turned around to see a light-blue fox-looking thing.

"This is a rare breed of fox I recently found for the zoo, it's worth a lot of money, plus it's adorable, I know it'll have a good home with you guys, please take him as a token of my thanks." The square-nosed zookeeper bowed his head.

"Awww, it's so cute!" Niri hugged it tightly. "Thanks Mr. Kaku! I think I'll call you… Sora! Tee-hee!"

"Another fox?" Dusty hpmhed. "Isn't that redundant?"

"Don't worry Dusty-chan!" DJ fawned, "You're still the prettiest fox on this team!" He was drowned out by the sound of all the females, including Dusty, who had forgotten her qualm, cooing at the baby fox.

Niri and the others were so busy awing over the cute new team member that they didn't notices the very pissed off looking penguin flailing behind them.

__

'Aw hell no! Of all the times to lose my ability to talk! There's no way something like that is joining the team! Hey! Listen to me! Niri! Kagura! Where's that voice ball!? Learn to speak penguin idiots! DAAMMN!'

****

--

Well, that's that, hope it was funny! This one was hard to write for some reason, oh well, hopefully we can get some more plot moving in the next few chapters! And if you're wondering about the detective hint, it was a trick, the way I said leaves made you think it was some plant or grass, but in truth it was that the giraffe "leaves" instead of being stolen, gotta watch out for those!

Next time on One Truth!

Dusty: I know the answer, this case is solved!

Niri: Everything happened like Dusty said it would… I'm scared…

??: Ms. Wenata, will you marry me?

Kirsty: What!? Dusty might leave the group?

DJ: Lalalala, I can't hear you! Lalalalala…

Those old Dusty Rhodes!

Kirsty: You can't pretend this isn't eating you up inside!

__

Next Detective Hint: Crown


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